Am I Courageous?
by MuffinPudding
Summary: Cracky-like fic from a random idea. Once again Ranma gets smacked in the back of the head and has amnesia, much like that one episode (yes that one). This time instead he imprints off of someone else entirely... and naturally ensuing events... ensue.
1. A Stitch in Time

A/N: No real point in the timelines picked out for this one. The whole "Am I Pretty" episode has happened before, but it had as big a lasting impact on the regular lives as before (IE none). Sailor Moon is still fighting Jadeite, and the monster of the week is Ramua in the whole clock scheme episode, placing it probably at the time that would have normally happened. Oh, and of course none of the rights to Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2 are mine.

A/N2: Updated the ending very slightly to fold in to the next bit.

* * *

 **Am I Courageous?**

A (stupid) Ranma 1/2 – Sailor Moon crossover fic.

* * *

It was a morning like every other. There was a shout of "You're getting weak, boy!" and then another shout of "Nice try, stupid panda!" The Tendo household was used to their guests at this point, and in turn no one even bothered to look. Kasumi hummed to herself as she finished preparing breakfast for everyone, Nabiki sipped her coffee and read the business section, while Soun alternated between his morning cigarette and rearranging the shogi board to his advantage. There was a splash, and finally Ranma came in satisfied and dusting off his hands. "Hey, where's Akane?" he asked, glancing about.

"I believe she's just running behind this morning," Kasumi replied. "Perhaps you could go and check up on her, Ranma?"

Ranma huffed. "She's probably too busy looking over outfits to try to make herself look pretty. Good luck," he grumbled, although without the vitriol that meant he was serious about it. "I'll go check on her Kas, just call us when breakfast is done." Wandering up the stairs to Akane's bedroom, he slid open the door. "Hey Akane, we were-" and froze. Across from him was also Akane, paused in the act of pulling up her skirt with only her underwear on. She stared at him, he stared at her, a blush of fierce red across both faces. Ranma's brain locked up, then tried to start again with the sound of grinding gears. Maybe if he just slowly closed the door and pretended he hadn't seen anything he could-

"PERVERT!" was the cry in turn, and grabbing a hand weight she hefted it like a club and threw it with all her force. Ranma had enough time to let out a "gleep!" and turn to run before he tripped over the bucket of water Akane usually kept to the side for waking him up. There was a splash, a CLONG! noise as the weight hit the back of his head, and then a thump as he now she dropped to the floor out like a light.

* * *

The family just watched the unconscious girl as they gathered about her bed. "Stupid Ranma, probably just trying to get out of going to school," Akane mumbled. Soun tried to insist that Akane take care of her fiance for what happened but a glare from her made him burst into tears about how mean his daughter was. Genma watched, and then splashed his son with a cup of hot tea. Ranma shifted back into a boy, but didn't wake up. Shrugging as if out of options, he went back downstairs with Soun following and wailing the whole way. Nabiki sighed and shrugged too. "We'd better get to school or we'll be late. Will you be okay, sis?" she asked Kasumi, who nodded and put a damp towel over Ranma's forehead. Turning and grabbing her younger sister's arm to drag her off, the pair left with Akane glancing back, her face a mix of worry and guilt.

Time passed, and Kasumi remained in the room, tending the unconscious Ranma and thumbing through one of her younger sister's magazines to pass the time. She really should get to cleaning the house, but making sure her house-guest was safe was more important. She would have asked her or Ranma's father to look after him, but both of them had taken off somewhere when it was apparent Ranma wasn't going to wake up immediately. So with a quiet sigh she checked his temperature and pulse, then set the magazine down to go make a call to Doctor Tofu. He acted silly, but he was the best doctor in the area and he had experience dealing with this sort of thing, far more than Kasumi's limited studying. A glance down at the still-unconscious form and she let out a quiet "Oh dear." She just hoped Ranma wasn't seriously injured.

* * *

The boy came to, with a throbbing at the back of his head and a dizzy disorientation. There was the sense of having lost his memories of something, but he couldn't place it. He looked down at himself: male, dressed in a red Chinese style shirt and silk pants. Bump on the back of the head, hair in a braided pigtail. Ranma Saotome, ready to face the world. That felt right, but there was something more. He felt like there was something else about himself he was forgetting. A girl or something. Looking about the room for something to help jog his memory, he spotted a magazine left as if waiting for him. Picking it up he settled back to read.

"SENSHI BEAT" the magazine read, and easily fell open to a profile page on a girl dressed up in what looked like a schoolgirl's sailor uniform except modified with red thigh-high boots and a skirt short enough to belong in _those_ types of manga. Ranma shook his head to clear the cobwebs and quietly read. "An unknown figure stands alone in the street, everyone else having fled the scene. Suddenly she transforms into her secret identity: the stylish Sailor Moon! The leader of the sailor senshi, Sailor Moon fights for love, beauty, and the good of everyone. With fighting skill and grace she defeats the evil monsters sent to prey on unsuspecting people, she makes it her duty to protect the weak. Fight on, Beautiful Soldier Moon!" Something about that resonated with Ranma. It was a martial artist's duty to protect the weak, Sailor Moon protected the weak, he fought all the time, she fought all the time. It clicked, that's why he couldn't recall the girl, she was a **secret identity**! What better way to be secret than to otherwise be a boy? How else could he pull off the ki blasts and special moves he had, other than moon kingdom magic? Excitement rising, he poured over the magazine to try and recover more of his memories. It was perhaps a fitting twist of fate that right beside the article was another one on a certain Tuxedo Mask figure. If Ranma had come across that article first, things would certainly have been different. As it stood however, a different interesting was about to happen.

Kasumi came back to find Ranma stretching and doing a quick warmup in his room. She watched for a few moments as he did a few poses, standing on a leg and then another with hand outstretched, a third with palms together hands outstretched. As he spun in a high kick he caught a glance of her standing in the doorway, and dropped his leg. "Hi Kas. Something up?"

She shook her head, a concerned look returning to her face. "How are you feeling, Ranma? You did receive a rather serious bump to the head, but I'm glad to see you're up again. You haven't forgotten things again, have you?" She frowned, watching him and inspecting his posture for a sign of being overly stereotypically feminine again. Thankfully Ranma didn't seem to notice the scrutiny, lazily stretching. "Nah, I'm fine. You're Kasumi, your sis is the yen-hungry Nabiki, other sis is the uncute macho tomboy Akane, your dad's the weepy dramatic Soun, and my dad's the stupid lazy panda. Plus I'm a boy, right? Why would I be anything else?" He gave a nervous chuckle but she just smiled gently in reply. "I'm glad to hear that. I've called the school already and they understand you're out for medical reasons, but that doesn't mean you should neglect your studies. You should also go see Doctor Tofu, in case there's any cerebral swelling or possibly even a subcutaneous parietal or occipital fracture. He'll know what to do."

Ranma just stared. He didn't understand a single word she had just said, it was all Greek to him. "Uh, yeah. I'll, uh, do that," he mumbled, wandering out of the house to head for Doctor Tofu's. Kasumi just smiled after him, then returned to the neglected housework.

* * *

Not quite at Tofu's office, Ranma was stopped by a scream. Figures, he thought to himself. Always when I want to get somewhere. A defender's work is never done, apparently. Glancing about for some water he eventually kicked a fire hydrant until it let loose with a blast of water, and then the new girl dashed into a back alley to change.

Ramua the youma was having a great time. Apparently her master Jadeite had hit upon the great idea to move their operation from their previous location of the Juban district to this new Nerima district of Tokyo. Not only had those irksome sailor senshi not shown up, but everyone seemed to be packed full of life energy to steal. In fact, most of the people had been so brimming that they didn't even notice her siphoning them dry until the first person collapsed and someone screamed. All she had to do was to finish draining them all, present the energy to Lord Jadeite, and then he would show the other generals how it was really done. And if she took a little extra for herself, who could blame her with such a selection to choose from?

With all that it was quite understandable she was distracted, and her first sign of danger was a booted foot plowing into her head and sending her tumbling to the ground. Growling she looked up to see a figure in a skimpy sailor skirt and red bow, wearing a white mask and standing on one foot in a pose. "Who the heck are you?" she spat, standing up and rubbing the spot where she'd been kicked.

"I'm Sailor Moon!" the girl replied. "I stand for love and justice and all that stuff, and in the name of the moon..." She trailed off, as if unsure what to say, glancing about and seeing the room full of clocks and unconscious victims. "I'm... I'm gonna pound ya into dust!"

Ramua just stared. She might not be the brightest youma, but she knew that while Sailor Moon was supposed to make dramatic poses (check), and spout cliches about love and justice and beauty (check), she was also pretty sure from the profiles she'd heard that the speech was supposed to be admonishing her for using household items for her nefarious purposes. "Don't you mean to say something about how clocks are a tool of time for honest people, or how they're meant to be worn on wrists to keep people on schedule, not for evil?" The fuku-clad girl just scratched her blonde hair in embarrassment, then carefully adjusted it before pulling her hand away. "Not even a quip about how I'm out of time or you're here to clean my clock?"

"Clean your clock, heh, I get it, wish I'd thought of it," Moon sheepishly admitted, looking about. "Cause it's a clock store and all. Look, do you wanna fight or not?" she taunted as she dropped into a loose and ready martial arts stance. Ramua just stared and blinked a few times. This was certainly going wrong. She didn't feel any of that horrible moon magic from the girl, however she'd never had a chance to fight the senshi so perhaps it was only there when they openly attacked? And wasn't there supposed to be more of them? This one certainly had arrived quick, she'd barely started to drain when she was attacked. She had the nasty feeling she was falling for a trap when her opponent cracked her knuckles. "Fine then, guess it's up ta me." She was ready for one of those magical beam attacks Sailor Moon was infamous for, when suddenly there was a fist in an uppercut to her chin, sending her flying up into the air. Before she could recover there was a blur and a kick from above sent her flying down instead to bounce off the ground.

Dazed for a few moments, Ramua slowly got up. "That was impressive... for a pitiful human," she drawled, wiggling her jaw to make sure it wasn't broken and trying not to visibly favour her right arm that she'd landed awkwardly atop. Sailor Moon just smirked, still in that ready stance like she hadn't moved at all. But she would wipe that smirk off her face, she wasn't her general's chosen youma for nothing. "Two can play that game! Clockspeed Rush!" she cried, then charged forward. Moon had enough time to look surprised at the burst of speed before taking a punch to the stomach, sending her back into the ground in turn. She did a quick flip to her feet however, grinning.

"That's good, was worried it was gonna be a boring fight anyways. Glad ta see you're not as slow as you look. But now it's my turn! Roasting Chestnuts Attack!" With that the girl leapt forward to attack, and Ramua moved as well, blocking a number of attacks before accidentally leaving herself open and taking a shot. _"What was that?"_ she thought as she felt where the hit had left her sore and winded. _"It felt like a jackhammer! This must be why the previous youma had had such trouble!"_ It was time to stop playing around however. If this girl wanted to be fast, she would have to show what **real** speed was.

"All right, girl, I think we've done this for long enough, but now to show you how outclassed you really are! Slices of Time Attack!" Sailor Moon readied herself to block, when suddenly the youma just appeared behind her, delivering a solid kick before she could turn, and then appeared on the other side as she went flying to kick her back. The monster continued to blink back and forth, delivering hit after hit in an imitation of two people playing tennis, only stopping when a final kick sent the senshi flying to hit a wall and slide down, her blonde wig falling off to reveal red hair pulled up into a quick bun. "I suppose that's why no one could recognize her, she's not really blonde." Not that it mattered, she'd defeated the one senshi who'd been a thorn in their side for too long, master Jadeite would be proud! She'd be promoted for sure now, perhaps even one day they would challenge Queen Beryl for the throne of the Dark Kingdom!

To the side 'Sailor' Ranma groaned quietly. She'd underestimated the youma, and received a beating in turn for it. Each of the attacks were weak, but she'd been taken by surprise for each one. How could someone move so fast? She didn't even see her opponent move! As she pulled herself to her feet she noticed the wig on the floor. Damn, now she'd certainly have to defeat the youma or her secret identity would be blown for good. "Alright, you're fast, I'll give ya that, but it's not all about speed. Remember, I'm Sailor Moon, and _Sailor Moon don't lose!_ " The last words a battle-cry, she charged the youma to deliver a series of blows. Ramua blocked each one, but was stunned. "What are you? No human should have been able to stand up after the blows I delivered!" Worse this frustrating gnat of a girl didn't leave her a chance to try a counter-attack either, keeping her on the defensive. Ranma just laughed with a taunting grin across her face. "Not your fault, you're just no match for me after all. And now I know your tricks!"

Ramua growled. "Then try this! Slices of Time!" She folded time about herself and slipped behind the girl to deliver another finishing blow, but Ranma had apparently been expecting it. "Chestnuts Revised: Endless Flight of the Swarming Wasps!" she shouted, then seemed to teleport as she bent around the attack to avoid it. A second kick from another angle was dodged as was a third and a fourth, seeming to flow around each blow at just the last moment, as if she could somehow predict the strikes. When Ramua leapt back to regroup and try to figure why her attacks weren't working, the red-headed senshi continued to dodge and dance on her own for a few seconds more before coming to a stop. That cocky grin remained plastered on her face, and it was all the worse that Ramua couldn't seem to hit her to wipe it off. "That all ya got? Even the tomboy's faster than you!" She pulled down an eyelid and stuck out her tongue with a nyah.

Ramua had gone past angry and irate to a further plateau of rage, with a seething fury burning inside her. How DARE that mortal taunt her like that? How DARE that mortal think she could match her, the great Ramua, Youma of Time? How DARE that mortal insect not be squashed like the bug she was?! It was time to end this once and for all. "YOU! You _you_ _ **you**_ will not! Will NOT defeat me! ME! You are but a speck compared to the powers I command!" Her eyelid twitched, and she pulled upon the life energy she had stolen to try and heal herself. "Prepare to be crushed by the might of the DARK KINGDOM! I am the great, the great youma RAMUA!"

Ranma stared, before scratching her head and letting her pigtail loose to drop down her back again. "Ramua? Huh, funny world. Uh, you okay there? You're kinda twitching. Didn't hit you that hard, did I? I mean, you're still on your feet and stuff." Ramua fumed, expression cycling between fury and ice calm, but not replying. "We haven't been fighting that long, don't tell me you're tired or what. No wonder you Dark Kingdom Chumps go down so easily."

Ramua hissed. "You! YOU! You can't- that's it, it's TIME for you to see how tired you are! You need a nap! Nap time!" She didn't care that she was making a spectacle leading to Ranma twirling a finger by her ear. She didn't care her purple hair was sticking up in clumps or that her dress had a large rip along the front or that she was heaving for breath in a mix of exertion and rage. All she knew was she was going to use all the time she could make to pull this brat apart limb by limb. "TIME REVERSE!"

Ranma readied to dodge the attack, watching the youma grow larger and larger, until stopping at maybe double her original height, standing with a look of satisfaction. Waiting a bit more for an attack that apparently wasn't coming, Ranma sighed. "Are you gonna attack me or-" before cutting off and clutching her throat. "What the heck is up with my voice?" She glanced down, to see her girl form still dressed in the fuku disguise, but instead a little kid's body maybe six or seven years old. "Aww, not again. Now I have to find those stupid mushrooms.." she grumbled.

Ramua laughed, voice warbling and her eye visibly twitching. "Ha! You had no chance to defeat me, now you have less of a chance! Welcome back to childhood, Chibi Moon!" She threw back her head to laugh, before receiving a boot to the head sending her flying once more, followed by another kick and a series of punches.

"I've been regularly beating up my pops since I was six, what makes you think this'd stop me?" Ramua dodged the next blow however, and punched back, forcing the child Ranma into a guard stance. Sailor Ranma charged again only to have to dodge another blow. Each attack was deflected by a counter-attack, speed matched and unable to get close enough. Leaping back to catch her breath Ranma took stock of the situation. She could still fight, but she was already winded and tiring out from all of this. As a little kid she didn't have the reach to attack with her tiny little arms and legs, nor did she have the muscle power to hurt with any blows she did get in. If this kept up she'd, well, she wasn't sure what would happen but she sure wasn't about to admit she could lose. She was going to have to try something new. Gathering herself, she shouted at the top of her lungs. "SAOTOME SPECIAL ATTACK!" then turned and ran. Unfortunately for Ranma, child legs don't run very fast, and she only managed to get a few steps away before the entire world seemed to slow down on her, body screeching to a halt. A few attempts at wiggling revealed she was stuck in position and helpless. The youma walked over to crouch down and smirk at Ranma, showing her fangs and pointy teeth. "Now you've fallen into my trap!" she gloated, the entire left side of her face twitching now. "You think you're so great, but you're nothing! You hear me? Nothing! An insignificant little insect, a fraction of a _picosecond_ worth compared to me, nothing at all! Gone! Just like that! Do you hear me?!" She leaned down again to shout right in Ranma's face, spittle flying from her mouth. "JUST LIKE THAT! And I will destroy you! Destroy you so utterly that Lord Jadeite will have no option but to realize I am perfect and great and then we can be together and he'll sweep me in his arms for a kiss before we overthrow the Dark Kingdom and take it over! And the only obstacle is YOU! You are not even a speedbump and bumps will be crushed and _YOU WILL DIE, SAILOR MOON!_ "

As she raised her hands, dark energy coalescing about them in preparation for something sinister, there was a flash of red and Ramua leapt back once more, clutching her cheek where a gash had appeared. Ranma found herself able to move once more, although still child sized, and she glanced down where a red rose had embedded itself into the floor. Quickly tracing the likely route back she saw a man dressed in a white tie affair complete with top-hat, cape swirling dramatically behind him. "Believe in yourself Sailor Moon! All-" He broke off, and peered down at Ranma who stared up at him. "You're not Sailor Moon."

"Stupid! I am too. You need your eyes checked or something? She did something to make me a kid but I'm still the same fighter I was before!"

He shook his head. "No, I'm fairly certain you are not her."

Ranma sighed. This was as bad as Kuno. "Look, idiot, thanks for the rose and all but I'm not interested, and I was doing just fine before you came along!"

The man leapt down to approach her. "My apologies young girl, but that rose is not for you. It is meant for the beautiful warrior princess Sailor Moon. Now, how about I escort you to your parents where it's safe-"

"You moron, I AM Sailor Moon! I'm just a bit different, and I lost my wig. Oh crap, my wig!" She dashed over and grabbed it, trying to fit it on her head before having it cover her entire face and slide off. "Ah damn. Look, I don't care who you are, or why you're here, but this is my fight, all right? So go home and take your roses with you! I mean, roses? Seriously? Who do you think you are, Kodachi?" She inspected him up close, peering up to see. "Could be a really good cross-dresser, we seem to get those around here..."

There was a cracking noise of joints from behind the pair. "You haven't defeated me! Not one bit! Not for one second! I don't care if there's four of you that keep moving, I am the great Ramua! Now, yes, now you will die!"

Ranma sighed. "One minute, okay?" she told the masked man, then spun about on her heel. "Fierce Tiger Standing in Moonlight Blast!" she shouted in a single breath and hands together threw out a beam of blazingly white ki, smashing into the youma and through her to leave a gaping hole in the chest.

"Ow," Ramua gasped, looking down and wiggling a hand in the hole experimentally. "That's not even the right finisher," she added, before falling over and disintegrating into a pile of dust.

The spell broken, Ranma popped back to her normal size as if nothing had happened. She glanced down, ran her hands across her uniform, then fist-pumped in victory. "Yeah! I'm back to me, and I didn't even have to chase down some stupid mushrooms! Sailor Moon one, Dark Kingdom zip! Told you I'm the best!" Turning on her heel she gestured to herself. "See? I told you I'm Sailor Moon, you- hey, where'd he go?" She looked about, then eventually shrugged and leaving the people to recover on their own exited and leapt onto the nearby rooftop, roof-hopping back home in search of some hot water.

* * *

Tuxedo Mask stood on the top of the building, face somehow in silhouette, and cape billowing dramatically despite a lack of wind. He was unsure of himself for once, not because of the girl, he knew she wasn't Sailor Moon, but because she'd insulted his roses. What kind of girl didn't like getting roses?She'd even ignored his pep-talk of 'believe in yourself'. Honestly, some people just didn't appreciate the effort he went to some days.

A pair of girls dressed up in sailor fukus, one with a long yellow pigtails and red ribbon and boots, the other with a blue ensemble and deeper blue hair burst in. "I'm the sailor warrior of love and justice, Sailor- Hey! Where'd the youma go?" She spun to look at the other sailor warrior who had already pulled up an eyepiece and portable computer, and was scanning. "Mercuryyyyyyy!" she whined. "We took too long and they're already gone! I told you we should have just ignored it and went to the arcade!"

* * *

Ranma had already changed back and finished putting his disguise costume away when he smelled food. Rushing downstairs he dashed into to the dining area. "What's for supper Kas...?" Trailing off, he stopped in the middle of the empty room, confused. On the table were three notes. "On a training trip, will be back tomorrow" read the sloppy first note, signed Tendo and Saotome. "Busy, back late" read the other in quick scrawled writing, with Nabiki's signature underneath. The third was written in a careful flowery handwriting. "I am out buying groceries and making deliveries. I will return later tonight, but there are leftovers still in the fridge. -Kasumi." Already feeling an impending sense of doom, despite his better judgement and danger sense screaming at him Ranma quietly made his way into the kitchen, his heart stopping and blood running cold at the sight of Akane humming as she stirred a pot of... something. He was pretty sure he saw an eye staring back at him from inside. Deciding the best tactic was to run, he started to back up quietly but bumped into a discarded onion which dropped onto the floor with a thump. Akane turned about, and Ranma realized he was doomed.

"Ranma! I was worried for you, I'm sorry for hitting you in the head like that and I was worried that I- well, you're all right, so it's fine then, right?" She gave a hesitant smile, and gestured at the pot with the spoon slowly dropping as if dissolving, and bubbling violently despite having been taken off the heat a fair bit ago. "I made you dinner to help you recover, and since everyone's left," and she glared at the empty table, "that means that the whole pot is just for you! Now grab a bowl and you can recover your strength!"

Instead, Ranma took the only solution available, and ran. There was a shout of "RANMA GET BACK HERE!" from behind and a few cooking utensils flying past. He leapt up to clear the fence but a frying pan flying in a perfect arc smashed into the back of his head, sending him down into the koi pond with a splash.

"Serves you right Ranma! ...Ranma?"

Eventually Ranma came to consciousness, with the entire family surrounding him, mostly indifferent, Kasumi concerned and Akane switching rapidly back and forth between angry and contrite. Apparently he'd missed an entire day, remembering nothing between opening the door to Akane's room in the morning and coming to the next day. After the usual round of questions about his memory ("Kasumi, mercenary, angry, weepy, stupid") and head status ("I'm Ranma Saotome, I'm always fine, OW don't touch that!"), life settled back to normal once again, with the particular day passing on as if it had mostly never happened. Mostly.

Of course, the important thing to note is just because a blow to the head brings about one set of mind, that doesn't mean that another blow would suddenly reverse it. As well, while Ranma Saotome might not be the smartest person about, a secret identity was one thing he knew was important to hide, even if that meant lying about forgetting everything. After a few days everyone would forget anything had happened and he'd be home clear to continue his secret youma battling. If only he could figure out just what he was forgetting about...

* * *

"Ranma you pervert! Why is there some schoolgirl fetish costume in your closet?!"


	2. Mars Attacks!

A/N: Dah dah dah, do da da do da da daaah! Congratulations! Your one shot has evolved into possible series!

* * *

The Dark General Jadeite was having a bad day. First, his latest scheme had been foiled by that Sailor Moon girl. Moving the operation to Nerima had been a gamble, with the extra energy needed to open a portal away from the stable Juban point, but it had paid off. Or at least it _would_ have if she hadn't shown up and completely trounced his youma. Worse, he had no idea how it had happened, the surveillance footage ended after a flying Moon had smashed into the camera and destroyed it. In fact his only proof that Ramua had been destroyed was when she didn't return at all. Perhaps next time he would have to actually watch things in person.

That wasn't enough, however, of course not. He'd come back from the failed mission to find someone had painted "Sailor Moon + Jadeite" in a giant heart on his door. It was probably Nephrite, he could be so juvenile at times. On top of that inside the room "JADEITE LOVES GIRLS" had been spray-painted on his wall. **That** one had been Zoisite. And to add icing to the dark cake, while he had been scrubbing the door clean (since he'd have to kill any youma who saw the graffiti after all) he'd been summoned by Queen Beryl.

Now Jadeite was kneeling by his queen. She hadn't so much as glanced at him when he arrived, staring into her crystal ball and occasionally waving her hands over it. That was over five minutes ago, and his knee was starting to hurt from holding that position, but he didn't dare move. Perhaps it was some sort of new torture technique she was trying? He realized he really had to go to the bathroom too and was about to figure a way to extricate himself when she turned to stare at him. Jadeite dropped his head in submission.

"So you came. I half expected you to hide from your failures. Why did you think you could get away with this incompetence?" He opened his mouth to try and defend himself and Queen Beryl cut him off with a wave of the hand. "That was rhetorical. You can't get away with your incompetence. Now, I heard from Nephrite here that you had been defeated by that girl once more. A single human defeated your youma, again? Perhaps you aren't the person to send. Do you have some excuse for your disappointing failure once again?" He opened his mouth once more and she sighed. "Also rhetorical. There is no excuse, of course. I however am a benevolent queen." There was a snicker from one of the cloaked youma, then a choking sound as Beryl made a squeezing motion with her hand. Once the cloak dropped onto the new pile of youma dust she resumed her lazy waving. "I am going to give you another chance, because I am so benevolent, and you naturally are going to appreciate it. And to show your appreciation, you are going to tell me what your plan is to win back my graces." Jadeite nodded frantically, then glanced up at his queen when the silence stretched on. "That was **not** rhetorical," she added.

"Oh, uh, apologies my queen. I found that, uh, humans are superstitious about charms, so I plan to sell cursed love charms to drain their energy."

Beryl nodded, then after a few moments glanced down at Jadeite. He looked up again, worry crossing his face. "And?" she added.

And? That wasn't enough? "Oh, and, uh, I plan to, uh..." She was frowning now, this wasn't good. Quick, Jadeite! A plan! Now! "I'll, uh.." Her hands had stopped waving and he had her full attention. Any time now, brain, any time now! "Kidnap!" he gasped out just as she was curling her fingers into a choking motion. "I'll kidnap them all and transport them here so we can keep draining them over time. Like batteries!"

Queen Beryl settled back in her throne. "An interesting plan, Jadeite. I wait to see how you perform. You are only allowed one youma, as normal, so I suppose you'll have to take a personal hand in things this time. You aren't afraid of doing things in person, are you?"

Of course he was! "Of course not, my queen," he murmured, breaking into a cold sweat.

"Very good. Do not let me detain you then," and she waved him off before going back to her crystal ball. As Jadeite stool shakily and tried to return his heartbeat to sub-200bpm the other generals snickered at him. Doing his best to ignore them and try not to show weakness to Beryl he teleported away with a flourish.

* * *

Ranma Saotome was having a bad day. First he'd been punched by Akane for calling her uncute in the morning, then had been late to school when Shampoo had ambushed him and tried to make him go on a date with her. Akane had seen that and pounded him, again, and as he ran to school after regaining consciousness Kuno had ambushed him at the gates. He'd made the mistake of listening to the flowery speech before knocking out the deluded kendoist, and it'd taken long enough that by the time he had made it inside the bell had already rung. Then when standing outside the classroom with buckets he'd been ambushed by Ryoga who blamed him for making Akane mad and gotten into a fight, and blamed for that too. If that wasn't enough Ukyo had cooked him a lunch, which while he loved her food it'd sparked a three-way war when Shampoo and Akane had both brought their own lunches for him. Then Mousse had seen and had attacked for trying to steal his fair Shampoo for himself. When Ryoga had ambushed him and Mousse (somehow having found his way to the school courtyard asking where the Tendo Dojo was) and then the girls got involved it turned into a complete battle royale. Normally Ranma would love to try that sort of fight, but by the point Kuno had seen Akane attacking him for beating on "poor Ryoga" he had leapt in with his own war cry. That of course had brought a crowd including the even more insane principal, and while Ranma didn't run from battles he did sometimes execute a strategic withdraw to figure out what next. This had seemed a perfect use for the Saotome special technique.

That led to Ranma sitting atop a train trying purposely to get himself lost. Well, herself, as the train passed through a brief rain-shower. Wringing her hair dry she hopped off to try and figure out where she was. There was some sort of shrine up ahead at least, perhaps they would be able to help. If anything, maybe the kami would take pity on her and help out with some of the problems she was having in her life. So wandering up the steps, she shoved her way through the crowd that was inexplicably gathered and glanced about.

In the middle of the crowd was a blonde priest of sorts, selling assorted charms. Also to the side was a long-haired shrine maiden sweeping the ground. The two glanced at each other and locked eyes, but then broke off when they lost interest. Before she could head further on one of the girls grouped about bumped into her, and she was forced back into the mob. That got the attention of the priest.

"Miss! I'm selling authentic magical charms here... you look like the sort of girl who needs help with your love life! This charm is guaranteed to help you find the person of your dreams!"

Ranma inspected the charm. While on the one hand she couldn't deny she needed a hand with her love life, notably getting rid of all the paramours and hangers-on she'd gathered, she was leery of magical items. She still had nightmares about the koi rod. With a shudder she shook her head. "Nah, not interested."

Jadeite, in disguise, frowned. This girl was saying no, to him. It wasn't a first but it was something he never had gotten used to. Instead he tried a bit of charm, giving her his best winning smile and moving closer before applying flattery. "Nonsense, a beautiful girl such as yourself must have no trouble getting dates, but everyone can use a hand finding the right someone. Why trust things to fate?" Instead, she shuddered and tried to back off. Jadeite wasn't to be dissuaded. "Tell you what, for someone as lovely as you, I wouldn't feel right denying you true love. Here, have this one for free, my treat." He all but shoved it into the girl's hands, and smiled inwardly as the group began to leave. Finally, he could activate the spell in all the charms, forcing all the girls to go onto the bus he had ready. Then, he could collect their energy and kidnap them all, and Queen Beryl would finally give him the respect he deserved! And best of all, the sailor senshi couldn't stop him this time!

* * *

Usagi Tsukino sneezed, and sniffed a bit, looking about. "And now I'm coming down with something, Amiiiiii!" she whined. Her friend, Ami Mizuno, just hummed to herself. Ever since she'd found out the Mercury Computer not only could play music but had a full library of classical music she'd taken a moment to evaluate which was more important to listen to: her friend Usagi or some long-dead lunar orchestra. That meant at the moment she was blissed out on what sounded suspiciously like Chopin. That left Luna, the feline adviser, to step in. "Usagi! People have gone missing, the police are starting to notice, and the Dark Kingdom is probably involved! Focus!"

The girl nodded. "Right! Stop the bad guys, save the day, and look cute for the boys. Got it!" The cat just sighed. They approached the shrine and paused at the steps, noticing all the people flooding past in a straight line headed for a bus parked outside. They looked to be in a daze, and one by one walked on zombie-like. Ami pulled up the Mercury Computer proper, and started scanning. By the point it got to the last girl, some sort of pigtailed short redhead, the scan had finished. "Usagi! They're all being mind-controlled! That bus must be the work of the Dark Kingdom!"

Usagi wasn't listening however, she was watching the redhead, who was pointing dramatically at Luna while trying to recoil. "C-c-c-c-c-c-c-" she stuttered, and Luna moved up curious. "CAAAAAAAAT!" she shrieked, and ran the opposite direction.

"She's afraid of Luna? She must clearly be working with the Dark Kingdom! Only the forces of evil don't like cats!" Usagi cried with a dramatic pose. Luna in turn gave a 'are you serious' look that was completely missed.

Ami tapped her friend on the shoulder, and when that didn't work gently tugged on her hair. "The bus," she reminded. Usagi just looked confused. "The forces of evil don't like buses?"

* * *

Ranma had no idea what had happened. One moment she was trying to get away from that creepy charm seller, then he'd shoved a charm into her hands, and the next thing she knew she was at the bottom of the steps running from a furry demon. Seeing the charm in her hand she made the obvious connection: The man was in league with the c-c-c-furry things! Clearly she needed to step in, it was her duty as a martial artist. Finding a shaded spot in the bushes she dove in and quickly retrieved her costume. She'd learned the special Hidden Weapons trick to carry a spare set of clothes on her after a trade of simple techniques with Mousse, it had seemed the sort of thing that any Jusenkyo victim should learn. Now it had been pressed into service to hide her disguise, taking her from the awesome martial artist Ranma Saotome... to the equally awesome but embarrassingly dressed Sailor Moon! Even better no one seemed to recognize her dressed up like that, likely from the disbelief that she'd wear something so form-hugging with such a short skirt. The best thing of secret identities she figured as she leapt out of the bushes again was that no one realized you had them, so they didn't get it into their heads to keep hitting you on the head until you forgot. She cleared the steps in a single leap and landed beside the priest. "Halt! Evil doer!" He looked up and she tried not to look too ashamed at using such a corny line. "I'm Sailor Moon, buddy! I'm here ta stop ya and yer plans ta lure girls to those c-c-c—horrible f-f-feline beasts!" She paused, mid-dramatic-pose. "Oh, uh, and I guess fight for love, and justice, and beauty and stuff."

Jadeite stared, trying to hide how panicked he was. He was an amazing fighter, yes, but so far every single youma that went up against this girl had been destroyed. Instead he put on a self-confident sneer to try to trip her up. "You can't stop me, Sailor Moon. Even as we speak the bus full of- wait, feline beasts?" At her nod he just looked confused. Feline beasts? He knew there were cat like youma, but Kigaan was some sort of red-headed ghoul thing. He'd never actually bothered to ask if she knew any felines, he'd just grabbed the first youma available and conscripted her for the job. "I don't have any cats."

Sailor Moon winced. "Don't say that!" she hissed. "I'm gonna have ta beat you up now you know." Jadeite laughed and shook his head. "You're no match for me. Behold one of the great dark generals of the grand-" and was shut up by a solid flying kick to his head, sending him sprawling. Reaching up to rub his head, he shook the fuzz clear and stood up. "Attacking before I could introduce myself. That's not very sporting, is it Sailor Moon?"

Moon growled. "Maybe, but an evil thing like you, well..." and she shrugged, before diving in for a punch. Jadeite was expecting it this time, and caught the fist, turning it into a quick throw to send her flying. He scoffed inwardly, those youma must have been wimps to be defeated by someone as unskilled as this. As he turned to go and see how Kiigan was doing he was interrupted by his danger sense warning him of something big. He had just enough time to duck as a fist sailed past his head, and spinning to turn he was forced to block a snap kick following it, the impact alone sending him sliding back and jarring his arms. Well, perhaps she wasn't as abysmal as he thought, as he floated up into the air to leave the stunned warrior girl standing looking up. "Poor pathetic human, so deluded to think you could match me! One of the great dark generals! I am Lord Jadeite, and I will have you remember the name of the man who utterly defeated you!"

Sailor Moon cracked her knuckles and hmmed. So perhaps it wouldn't be so simple. He was fast, she had to give him that, she hadn't gotten a solid hit in yet. However he was convinced that flying would stop her. Stupid, the Saotome School specialized in aerial combat! Without bothering to cry an attack she crouched and leapt up, seeming to float in the air as she began a flurry of attacks. Jadeite blocked and dodged, but his smirk had slipped to reveal an increasingly angry expression. He was too far on the defensive to try to attack, and sooner or later he'd slip up, a fact that Moon exploited by pushing herself harder. Kick kick punch kick punch punch feintKICK! Taken in by the move the general was sent tumbling back to fall out of the sky and land in a crouch. She followed plummeting with a kick that he narrowly dodged, returning with a solid punch of his own proving he was no slouch in delivering punishment as well. Both of the fighters leaping back, a smirk was shared between and then they leapt in to fight, blurring to superhuman speeds and trading blows as the occasional hit got past, each hit returned with a counter-attack and more.

Rei Hino watched, stunned. She had the unnerving feeling she'd been dropped into some shonen manga or anime, with two supernatural fighters going head to head. It did explain what she'd heard about that Sailor Moon, that she was an amazing fighter, but somehow she expected someone a bit more, well, feminine. Graceful even. Certainly not this rough-talking brawler. She winced as the moon senshi went flying back and sprawled, tiny skirt giving a good view as it flipped up. Rei blushed a fierce red and looked away as Moon, not noticing thankfully, leapt back into the fight. Her eye caught something sitting on the ground discarded, however, and crouching down she picked up the small rod, capped with an arrowed heart symbol. Something about it was familiar, if only she could place where...

Sailor Moon wasn't having a good time. This guy was good, as good as she was she'd have to admit, not that she'd ever admit he might be better. He'd even shrugged off most of a chestnut fist jackhammer. Who did this guy think he was, Ryoga? Leaping back she tried a change of tactics. "Fierce Tiger Blast!" she shouted, dumping her ki into a beam of white that her opponent somehow dodged as well. Frustrated, she leapt in to keep the momentum, but he was ready and started attacking in turn. Every one of his attacks was slow compared to her, but he was no slouch and even when she tried to slip into the openings he used it to try and attack her freely, forcing her to give up the attack and defend herself once again. He couldn't seem to get in more than the occasional hit, and neither could she, the stalemate continuing until a tiring senshi slipped up and fell for a feint, letting him get a solid punch into her undefended gut to wind her, and then when she bent over reached to pull her into a quick grapple and headlock. She struggled, choking, and tried a flip back but he wasn't thrown off when instead he used his flying ability to stay atop her. She couldn't die like this, wearing her disguise costume. People would take off the mask and wig, realize it was her, and then she'd never live her death down! But every struggle she tried didn't work, and he was good enough to counter her moves, and with the blackness coming in-

There was a fwish and a THUNK sound, Jadeite letting go to leap back and rub his head. Glancing down Moon saw a heart-shaped box on the ground, spilled open to reveal a number of smaller brown hearts. Picking one up she sniffed it and popped it into her mouth curiously, then glanced up where it must have come from. There was the same tux-guy from before standing on a tree with his cape dramatically billowing.

"Sailor Moon! You must believe in- wait, you're still not her."

Sailor Moon herself picked up the box and shook it with a rattling. "I toldja, I'm not interested! And did you just throw a box a **chocolates** at me? First roses now chocolates? Really? What're ya, Martial Arts Dating?" She looked back at the bewildered Dark General. "Chocolates. Can you believe this? What the heck! Next yer gonna attack with a karaoke machine? Dinner? Tickets to a movie? Hey, are you taking notes?!"

Tuxedo Mask hurriedly put away the notepad he'd been scribbling her suggestions down on. He was getting nervous, normally he'd have leapt away once Sailor Moon was sufficiently motivated, and let her handle the fight herself. Instead this girl was arguing with him. "What would a beautiful warrior such as yourself prefer I use to show my affections?" He missed the wince she had at beautiful, instead gesturing dramatically. "I am the gallant Tuxedo Mask, I come bearing my gifts to help motivate the esteem of young girls, and give them the motivation to fight for love! I whoa!" He dodged the thrown box as it narrowly missed his head to end up embedded in the tree branch. Glancing down at her stony expression he reached for the box "While I'm sure you may dream of me as a paramour, my heart is already taken. These are intended for the beautiful Sailor Moon, not yourself. Now I- rrrh." He broke off when the box failed to come loose with a tug, and he resorted to putting both feet against the tree trunk and heaving.

Jadeite seethed. It wasn't bad enough that he had been fought to a near standstill by this whelp, and it hadn't been bad enough that on the cusp of his victory he'd been attacked by this tuxedoed idiot throwing a box of chocolates at his head. It wasn't enough that the man looked oddly familiar, and a headache squeezed like a vice when he tried to recall where he'd seen him before. No, the real frustration was the two of them ignoring him and arguing back and forth with each other like he wasn't there. He had been in the middle of a battle! He would deal with that man later, after he showed that girl what the Dark Generals were _truly_ capable of. Oh yes, she would pay.

* * *

To the side, Rei watched, knowing she had to do something. Sailor Moon was arguing with the cute guy in the tree, while her opponent readied what looked like a blast of something. She wasn't expecting it, and she'd be killed if something wasn't done. Acting on instinct, she grabbed the wand she'd picked up and raising it high shouted the first thing that came to mind. "Mars Power MAKE UP!"

* * *

Ranma stopped arguing at the sudden light show behind her, turning to see. She caught a glimpse of that one shrine maiden, except nude and twirling in some column of glittery light. Clutching a hand to her nose to stop the sudden bleeding she caught that one Dark General guy powering up some beam of dark ki. It looked a lot like one of Ryoga's lion roar things, except a bright black like it was powered by dark depressed confidence, if that made sense. With the fraction of a second warning she leapt sideways, the blast screaming past her as she landed, then forced to scramble as he swept the beam along to try to catch her in it. The general smirked as he continued to scythe energy at her, eventually stopping when she charged in. Right as she threw a punch he suddenly vanished, teleporting behind to try a kick. It wasn't enough as she dodged, but he teleported over again to avoid her counter-attack. The same thing happened a few times before both fighters pulled back to assess.

Jadeite couldn't seem to hurt her, and was getting frustrated, while Moon looked equally frustrated as he just teleported every time she tried to attack. He was about to gloat when suddenly there was a shout about evil spirits and something hit him between the shoulder-blades. The culprit revealed herself as the priestess dressed up in an outfit much like Sailor Moon, and holding a prayer strip between two fingers. As much as he struggled, he couldn't move, which meant that he was helpless as the Moon warrior leapt up and smashed his face with a fist followed by a series of rapid-fire punches and a last knee to the gut, sending him up and then her leaping up after him to fight and smash him back to the ground. Jadeite laid there for a few moments, unable to move, frustration building. He was a dark general, and she was getting in some solid hits. He could already feel blood trailing down the side of his head, and he ached all over, particularly where she'd gotten in that solid hit to his stomach. If he didn't do something then he'd be in serious trouble, and he still **couldn't move**! The frustration and anger built up, then with a hiss the ward on his back burst into flame and burnt away. "ENOUGH!" he shouted, getting up. "I have toyed with you for long enough, but it's time to show you why we are feared by all!" Teleporting up close he began a furious assault of magically charged blows, each one infused with dark energy meant to cripple his opponent. She tried to fight back, but was steadily overwhelmed, and started to back up under his blows, a few strong ones hitting and getting a cry of pain. She tried to block, and he grabbed her hair and pulled to hammer a fist into her face with the hair instead coming off in his hand. Sparing a moment to notice her red hair in confusion he stared at the wig, which was immediately burnt to a crisp by what looked like a blast of fire. Tracing it back he saw the other girl hands together and fingers out, a lick of fire on the tips. Instead he resumed his attack and teleported behind at the last moment to leave Moon in the way to take a blast of fire meant for him, singing her outfit and burning a patch off the skirt. Without giving her a chance to recover resumed his assault.

"Him not me!" Ranma shouted, even as she was pushed backwards. She was losing the fight, she knew, she needed a good trick. No good trying to run buy herself some time, those prayer strips wouldn't work when he was expecting it, her ki blasts were dodged, and she knew she couldn't keep this going for much longer. As she pulled back she found herself unconsciously turning and moving in a slow spiral, feeling the buildup of hot chi in the air. Glancing down at the figure she was tracing, a smirk crept to her lips as a plan formed. Unfortunately as frustrated as her opponent was, it wasn't quite enough, she needed to ramp up the difference. "Hey! Magical shrine girl!" she shouted over at the fuku-clad girl. She looked up, confused, with a bit of what looked like hot ki between her fingers sputtering away. Ranma grinned. "Start shooting him!"

"But I'll hit you instead!" she cried back, the ball growing larger.

"Don't worry, I've got an idea." She ducked a fist and laughed, tapping it mockingly and dodging. Another blow caught her and she just shrugged it off, plastering a cocky grin on her face despite the pain, incensing him further. Just a bit more, she thought, continuing the dance and doing her best to dodge all the blows but getting hit by the occasional one rather than disrupt the pattern. Then the fire came, blasting and starting to light the ground up in flames, surrounding them and heating the area further. The general was oblivious, a snarl marring his otherwise handsome face. Ranma for her part grinned, and pulled the spiral tight, struggling now to stay upright from the abuse she was taking. Her smirk dropped and she closed her eyes for a moment, settling into the calm of the soul of ice technique. She could feel the air rippling about as the fire and hot chi of his frustrated assault slid off her, and she finished the dance. Step step done. "ASCENDING LUNAR DRAGON STRIKE!" she cried, punching upwards and dumping all of her cold chi into the strike, hitting the spiral of hot energy and causing a sudden blast that hit Jadeite and threw him up into the air, buffeted and pinned.

Jadeite just laughed in defiance, coughing up blood. "You think that will stop me? I can fly, you stupid human!" Except when he tried he found that every bit of magic was sucked up by the raging vortex, trapping him in place and burned by the buffeting fire. That was all the time that was needed for the pair to share a glance and a nod. "Fire Soul!" "Fierce Tiger in Moonlight Blast!" Unable to move or dodge he had just enough time to scream a "NO! THIS CANNOT BE-" before the blast of fire-wrapped ki hit him and the tornado exploded, raining shredded bits of uniform over the shrine.

* * *

Ranma groaned, spitting out a bit of blood from her mouth. "That jerk got me good," she grumbled. "Let my guard down I guess. Was a good fight tho." She looked up at the girl in an outfit similar to her own. Red, blue ribbon, throwing fire. "Gonna guess you're not Mercury or Venus, right?" At the shake of the head she sighed. "Figures, one day I pay attention in class and they get the stupid order of planets wrong." She gave a chuckle and winced as she held a hand over a rib. Felt like it might be broken. "Never got yer name."

"Um, Hino. Rei Hino." She bowed a bit awkwardly, then winced as Ranma tried to return the gesture and hissed in pain. "I'm sorry for delaying like that. I'm not even sure what's going on. I found that wand, and using it just felt right. Um. So you're Sailor Moon? You're..." and she gestured, "shorter than I expected."

Ranma sighed, leaning heavily against a nearby wall. "I get that a lot. Aw crap, my wig. That's twice I have to replace the damn thing. And my mask! Ahh!" She tried to cover up her face before realizing it was a bit late for that. "Ah damn. Uh, I don't suppose you'd forget you saw my face?" Grimacing at the replying smirk she just shook her head. "Uh, thanks for the help, not that I needed it or anything! I.. ow. Okay, I dunno about your fire and such, but we'll have to see how well you fight when I'm up to a spar. I'm sure we'll get a good chance soon. I'll, uh, I'll find you, 'kay?" With that she turned and leapt, almost botching the landing as a bus suddenly appeared underneath her on the road, using it to instead spring off and to a nearby rooftop and away.

Rei stood and watched as the mysterious girl leapt away like some sort of super-heroine. That one guy had been cute but evil, instead she was cute but good. Instead she decided she needed to thank the girl properly for ridding the shrine of that evil she'd actually trusted, when he seemed so nice and friendly bringing in all the visitors. Ignoring all the dazed passengers exiting the suddenly appearing buses she leapt up and over the rooftops to follow.

* * *

Ranma sighed and started to undress for a soak. Her entire body ached, and she felt like she'd swam the entire ocean again this time with pops on her back. It felt like she'd cracked a rib at least, and she knew she was gonna have bruises all over. Only a few battles she could clearly remember (although she knew she must have been in more since it was in all the magazines) and she was starting to take a beating from the enemies. Of course, that youma had had nothing on that Dark General guy. He was the one to watch out for. It looked like she'd have to step up her training to keep up with her opponents.

She was just about to slip in to the bath when the door slid open and she caught a glimpse of the shrine maiden, Rei, from earlier. Frantically grabbing a towel to cover up with the pair locked eyes, both of them flushing a bright red and too shocked to move. Akane in turn came up behind. "Oh, sorry, is there something wrong with the furo...?" She caught a glimpse of a mostly naked Ranma and the younger girl she'd already been jealous of when she claimed Ranma had helped her out somehow. Then seeing the fierce blush on both faces and the way they were staring at each other, she leapt to the obvious conclusion.

"RANMA! YOU PERVERT!"

* * *

Elsewhere General Jadeite collapsed onto the floor, coughing up dark blood and in general looking as horrible as he felt. He had known he was going to die when he saw the blast, but at the last moment as the tornado had exploded about him he'd been whisked away. Of course if he realized it would be Queen Beryl pulling him out of the literal fire to ask why his youma had been destroyed and the buses full of humans had been rescued while he was busy fighting for his life, he would probably have preferred the quick death instead. He'd been told there was only one chance left, and if he didn't kill those Sailor Senshi he shouldn't return at all. Of course, immediately afterwards Kuzinite had laughed, making comments about 'sailor shrinkage' and Jadeite had fled to put on a new uniform. "Curse you Sailor Moon!" he cried from the safety of his bedroom. "Because of you I have seen hell, and next time we meet, I will DEFEAT YOU!"

Elsewhere, Ryoga Hibiki looked down at the map of Hokkaido and up at the signs in Chinese, trying to figure out where he was. He knew somehow it was probably Ranma's fault.

* * *

Ranma sneezed. It felt like he was coming down with something. All this fighting in the past week had gotten to him. Thankfully he'd managed to convince Rei that he was really a girl, and Akane for once had gone along with it (after whispering to Akane that if it was found out Rei's rescuer was really a guy she might turn into another stalker or fiance). Rei had insisted that there was no worry and she had just come to drop off one of Ranma's schoolbooks she'd left behind, and then left. Back in his room Ranma had found a note inside the book, with a quick note to meet her at the shrine next time 'she' could get away. Instead he groaned. It wasn't bad enough he had to fight demons, but now his secret identity had girls after her as well? He just knew this was going to go bad, somehow.

* * *

Usagi whined about another time fighting another youma, and how they still hadn't caught the bad guy behind it, and all the time that meant they hadn't gotten a chance to go get ice cream like they wanted and why wasn't anyone listening to her? Ami instead turned it out and hummed along to one of Beethoven's piano sonatas as she walked. Luna remained quiet. She had the nasty feeling that she'd missed out on something big, some major event that was important, and she needed to remember. She would have to talk to Control tonight.

* * *

Elsewhere in a place unknown and a time even more unknown, there was an annoying buzzing noise. A green-haired woman smashed the offending alarm clock with a long garnet-tipped staff, then groaned at the remains. It wasn't the first time she'd done that either, she always had a problem getting up. Ignoring the sense that something had gone horribly wrong she instead dropped her head onto her pillow and went back to sleep. Whatever it was could wait.


	3. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

A/N: It's back! This one is more of a set-up piece, laying pieces out for the events next chapter, which will have to be done because I can't end the story here this time.

(For reference, Miharu + Neko = Nekaru. It made sense to me based on how other characters were named, although I don't speak a word of Japanese so anyone who could tell me if it's actually some dirty word or worse let me know and I'll figure something better!)

* * *

It was a fairly average nice weekend in Tokyo. People walked along enjoying the sun, with the occasional group of schoolgirls relaxing on their day off and chatting amongst each other, and a few people out getting the shopping done. In the Hikawa Shrine off in the Juban district it was not much of a different story. The resident shrine maiden, Rei Hino, was relaxing with a manga she'd purchased. Her grandfather had conned a few other girls into being shrine maidens for the day, although the way he was leering after them they likely wouldn't be back next week. She would normally shout at him for his behaviour but at the moment she'd been trying to keep her temper under control, and it was far too nice a day to get properly angry. Instead she tried to tune him out and turned the page.

Her concentration was broken by a shout. Glancing up and over at the source, she sighed and went back to her book. _"I must not get angry, I must not get angry,"_ she muttered to herself. Such wonderful idyllic peace broken up by that girl, that Ranma Saotome. She'd met her almost two weeks ago now, when it had been revealed that the people were being kidnapped by Jed, who was actually some Dark General named Jadeite in disguise. She wasn't clear on the details, but she'd been saved when Ranma had come in, and revealed herself to be the Beautiful Soldier Sailor Moon. Well, at least the soldier part. She had to admit that Ranma was stunningly attractive, and her body drew the eyes of all the boys, but she didn't seem to notice any of that. Instead she was rude, blunt, seemed to lack any sort of modesty, and acted some times like, well, a boy. Such as now, when instead of enjoying the sun she was doing some sort of kata in the grass behind the shrine in nothing more than a tank top and shorts. Rei had to admit it was fairly impressive the way she seamlessly moved from one move to another, almost like a dance. She'd asked Ranma if she'd taken any ballet, though, and only received a scoff about how she wouldn't do any of that "girly stuff" even if she was forced into it. However, when pressed, she had muttered something about 'martial arts ballet' so Rei had eventually decided that Ranma was seriously messed up one way or another. Right now the main annoyance came from her occasional shouts.

"Do you have to be so loud? Some of us are trying to relax here!" Rei shouted back, causing Ranma to stop mid-kick. Pausing a moment to supposedly consider that, Ranma stuck her tongue out and went back into her practise, now shouting even louder with each imaginary strike. _"I must not get angry, I_ _ **MUST**_ _not get angry! I..."_ Another shout broke her internal litany, and temper snapping she threw her manga at the girl. It didn't help as Ranma dodged it while facing the completely opposite direction. When the pig-tailed girl didn't even acknowledge the book Rei decided she'd had enough and charged forward, throwing a punch at her. To her credit Ranma did stop this time, leaping into the air effortlessly, sailing over the fist and landing behind Rei. Instead of trying to turn around she threw a sloppy kick behind, and was happily surprised when instead of dodging it Ranma actually blocked it. Her joy was short-lived as the girl just sighed and moved away. "I thought ya wanted ta spar there. If that's all ya got, though, it's not gonna be enough. I dunno if I can hold back that much."

Seeing red, Rei pulled her transformation wand out without even pausing to wonder where she'd been keeping it, and yelled her "MARS POWER MAKE UP!" as if it was a battle-cry. The soothing lights of the transformation sequence did nothing to calm her ire, and when she landed back on the ground as Sailor Mars Ranma was already waiting arms crossed. Mars leapt forward and threw a few rapid punches, each easily dodged, until she missed her step and overextended herself, a quick yank to the arm and a snap-kick to the back causing her to lose her balance and fall forward onto the grass. After sulking for a few moments there was a tap on her shoulder, and she glanced up to see Ranma crouched beside her offering a hand. "Feel better now?"

* * *

Deep within the Dark Kingdom, Jadeite prowled the shadowy streets. The youma nearby cleared out, making a path for the dark general out of a mix of fear and respect, but he paid them no heed. He had a specific mission in mind, and a specific youma for it. It also wasn't a mission sanctioned by Queen Beryl, which could be dangerous if discovered. If it wasn't found out and succeeded, he could take all the credit, and if it failed, well... he could always claim ignorance. Finally at his destination, he stopped in front of a decaying building and knocked twice, then after a pause twice more. Another pause, and the door opened, a fanged drawn youma face just visible past the shadows. When she recognized him, she backed up to let him in, closing the door behind him. Jadeite swept inside, managing to put as much deadly threat into the motion as he could without outright stomping. Appearances were important in a case like this after all. The youma gave a deep bow to him before straightening and unconsciously adjusting her hair. She was some sort of mix of woman, bat, and panther, black fur in a sort of suit across her body with a feline tail, large ears sticking above her head and the pair of deadly fangs with deadly claws on her wing-like hands to go with them. She also for some reason was dressed in a blue minidress and high heels that made her look like she was ready to go clubbing. Jadeite shook his head to ignore the incongruity and cleared his throat.

"I have a special job for you," he began, and she stood straighter. "This mission will be of the utmost secrecy, there are factions at work that wish for my failure even at the cost of the Dark Kingdom's inevitable success. You are to go to Earth, keep to the shadows and hidden. Then you are to go a specific location..."

As he outlined the plan, the youma looked more and more disquieted, but there was nothing she could do. While it sounded like her lifespan during this 'plan' would be minutes, disobeying a dark general would mean she'd be dead in seconds. He also somehow believed she was the best choice, or (she admitted to herself) at least the most disposable. While she knew it was a bit of a suicide mission if she was caught, she had to admit Lord Jadeite was the last of the generals to use the old 'find a youma and send them in alone' tactics, and the others tended to use them as disposable foot-soldiers, or worse mook hordes to die by the hundreds to achieve an overall meaningless goal. Being an active service youma was a terrible job, but the alternatives were far worse. Belatedly, she realized that Lord Jadeite was wrapping up his speech, so feigning complete attention she nodded and gave a crisp salute, following it up with a bow just in case, then stood at attention while he left. Once she was sure he was gone, she collapsed with a groan.

Nekaru was doomed, that was all there was to it. And she'd so been looking forward to hitting up The Pit and partying until she was exhausted. With nothing to do for it, she made her way towards the portal to Earth, and her apparent mission.

* * *

The two girls circled each other, slowly and warily. Well, the one girl was wary, the other seemed bored and impatient as she bounced on her feet. Finally the black-haired Rei leapt in and tried a simple combo of a few punches and a kick. Her red-headed opponent seemed to flow underneath the moves and delivered a low sweep to the leg. Rei managed to jump it but Ranma didn't let up the pressure and pushed her advantage with a few jabs and kicks, Rei forced to move further and further back before overextending herself in a block and getting knocked over. Growling in frustration, she pushed aside the offered hand up and got back to her feet.

"You're too fast, how the heck am I ever going to be that good?"

Ranma shrugged and scratched the back of her head again before rolling her shoulders a bit to loosen up. "I'm the best, but all we gotta do is get ya better. No mistake, ya _are_ getting better, but even with ya drawing on yer powers yer still slow 'n clumsy. Ya keep leaving yerself open, can't win a fight by being like the gorilla, not a real fight anyways. The jump was good but ya didn't use yer advantage, and ya lost momentum. If you'd retaliated with something I'd've had ta go on the defensive instead. That's the trick ta the fight, findin' the point ta get in, and keepin' control. Now, go do your speed training, ok? I'm gonna practice mine. Then we can spar again later."

Rei muttered as she grabbed the heavy bundle of wood from the side and started a jog like she'd been doing before. Ranma had claimed it would help with her strength and speed, but she hadn't seen the redhead do anything similar. Instead, she was doing some sort of slow meditative kata, occasionally pushing hands out together then looking frustrated. The last time she'd asked about it she'd been told she was trying to master the teleport method "that blond jerk guy had". Apparently Ranma wasn't ready to accept that it might simply be magic like her senshi abilities, and was still trying to manage it herself. But she had 'training' to do, even if it felt like torture, so she started the slow jog around the area.

Ranma herself continued to try and focus on how everything had felt. It was something like him managing to just cease in one place and be in another, and the only tell was that surge of that heavy dark ki right before he vanished. It didn't show up when he reappeared so she couldn't use it to track him, and it must mean whatever he did was done before he teleported. Clearly the solution was the setup. Of course if she wanted to be honest, the real reason she was here wasn't just that it was a nice quiet area to train, or that it had one of her few friends, but because life at home wasn't all that great. The old men were trying to push her and Akane for a wedding, Akane was on edge because of that and and liable to punch anyone for merely looking at her, Nabiki had hidden up in her room and monopolized the phone trying to convince some Bill guy to get into fishing (apparently nets were a big thing, who knew?) and charged anyone money for disturbing her, and then the amazons had used some sort of potion to try to make Akane fall in love with Ryoga and drop the engagement (which didn't work, and instead Ryoga had fallen for **Ranma** which was all levels of ick she refused to think on). All that was within the same week, so was it a wonder Ranma had relocated out of the epicenter of craziness to try to get some time to herself? If getting away from the madness meant staying female for a while, she finally admitted it might be a valid trade, as long as she could still change back to male before she went crazy. Maybe the difference between this and the times she was form-locked was being able to choose. If she got a new technique out of it at the end, she could even claim it was a training trip. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea, now that she thought about it.

To the side hidden in the bushes the youma Nekaru watched, occasionally taking notes. She didn't know why she was taking notes of these two, but it's what she was told to do. Really, it wasn't so bad, perhaps a bit dull since all they did was train or read or chat. What was really annoying was the company she had to deal with.

"Saotome, I'll make you suffer, Akane's no good for you!" the other figure in the bushes muttered, occasionally stabbing a little doll with a long needle.

The other two figures in black just watched silently, the short ninja just watching and taking his own notes for his master Kuno, while the taller 'girl' plotted to defeat him for Ukyo. Periodically they would lean over and compare notes, pointing out details the other missed. It was a bit creepy, perhaps, but she at least had the excuse that she'd been ordered to spy on the girl because her master had a fascination about what she was up to at the shrine unlike the hangers-on who seemed more than a little obsessed and unhinged. As the trio started muttering to each other in a building argument (which caused the tree behind them to join in the shouting) and her targets came over to inspect (with a look promising suffering to anyone caught), the spy sighed and slipped away to escape in the confusion. It really wasn't her day.

* * *

Usagi Tsukino was enjoying her day. She'd passed her history exam yesterday ("50% is not a failure!" she'd shouted proudly, showing off her math knowledge as well) and now she'd gone and filled herself up on ice cream. There hadn't even been any youma attacks lately, so it was just her and her friend Ami Mizuno instead of their alter-egos. Ami herself was also in a good mood, managing to push aside the worry she needed more review on her trigonometry to instead enjoy a nice sunny day. Well, she had after she'd caved in to a solid half-hour of pestering by Usagi. She wasn't sure why she was friends with the girl, she was a lazy clumsy slacker who was average intelligence at best, and worse loved to chatter endlessly while Ami preferred to find a good textbook and read. She did suppose there was some sort of debt after her life was saved and she was recruited to be a fuku-clad magical girl, but it was easier to push those thoughts aside under classical music through her Mercury Computer. And ice cream, of course. If she had a good book to read and a nice spot in the shade she'd be in heaven. At this point she'd settle for a warm bed and no more late-night study sessions. It was close enough however as the two girls just wandered, Usagi going on about the one time she'd seen this Tuxedo Masked Kamen guy or whatever his name was, and Ami nodding at the appropriate times without paying much attention. She nearly bumped into the blonde however as Usagi stopped mid-sentence and mid-stride by the steps of what looked like a shrine, looking up with an unreadable expression.

"Is something wrong, Usagi?"

Usagi stared up with that same unreadable expression, before shaking her head and giving a ditzy smile. "Nope! I just zoned out there. Hey, let's go to the arcade! I hear they have the new Sailor V game in, and we might even get to see some cute boys too!"

Ami glanced up, and back, trying to recall why the area was familiar, but her brain was sluggish from lack of sleep. "Did you feel something?" she whispered, making a quick gesture to start the Mercury Computer scanning for dark energy. Usagi merely gave that same unreadable look followed by the same ditzy one. "Maybe it was my stomach, telling me 'more ice cream!'" she laughed, before dashing off dragging the blunette behind her.

A few moments later Rei and Ranma came down the steps, Ranma all but dragging her companion along, both wearing packs at least as big as they were (and in Ranma's case, five times as heavy). "C'mon, I wanna get camp up before night hits, and we've a long walk 'fore there."

"Walking?" Rei grumbled. "Can't we take the train if it's so important?"

"Do YOU have train fare? 'Sides, it's good endurance trainin'," Ranma declared, arms crossed. "Now c'mon." She knew if they didn't hurry it'd rain, it always loved to rain on her thanks to the curse. At least it would keep the pig and the duck away. She idly wondered where Ryoga was, anyways. She hadn't seen him since the love potion incident, which was probably a good thing.

* * *

A woman with dramatically green hair sat at a table in the middle of a dark void, sipping her morning coffee and reading the newspaper. Admittedly the concept of morning had no meaning there, but it was the little rituals that kept her sane. At least, she joked, that's what the voices told her. In fact it was a wonder she wasn't worse off, with this much time stuck to a job and fighting to stave off tedium. So this was why she was perusing the recent edition of the Space & Times front to back, even if all she really cared for was the sports scores and sometimes the comics. "Tokyo exchange up three points," she mumbled, taking another sip. "Samsung electronics down a percentage. Microsoft up by 20 percent. Crystal Tokyo futures down by 15 percent." Turning the page, she took a sip before her brain caught up to her and she did a spit-take, spraying hot coffee all over the area, coating a small piglet which turned into a full-sized nude teenager (which in turn startled a small girl who was sneaking up, causing her to lose balance and tumble backwards out of sight). Oblivious to the sudden intruder she rapidly flipped through the paper to see what was up. Microsoft recently announced it was moving into the Internet business, and was planning to release its own browser to compete with up-and-comer Netscape? She had thought they wouldn't do that for a year at least! She had a lot of stock in Netscape, and Microsoft didn't even have a browser yet! She just hoped she wasn't going to get soaked on the deal. A quick phone call (giving the boy time to get dressed) revealed that someone had dumped a bunch of Netscape stock shortly before the announcement, and then with that and the announcement dropping the price further she'd be lucky to break even on this. It was a good thing she could play the long game, tech stocks were too volatile for her tastes.

Finally she looked up, as if seeing the boy for the first time. "Hello, Ryoga".

Ryoga Hibiki sighed. "Hello, grandmother."

* * *

Mu-Tsu crept through the forest, approaching the clearing that accursed Saotome had set up camp in with that newest floozy of his. This time he would make him pay for trying to steal his Shampoo, and show her that he was the only one who truly loved her. So still prowling with a catlike grace and stealth that would surprise anyone who knew him, he paused at the edge of the clearing, listening. There was a groan and a moan from further in, although even with his glasses he couldn't make out details that far away. It sounded like a female Saotome. "Harder! C'mon, harder! It's not that tight! I'm barely warmed up!" she cried. The other female was panting hard with another groan. "We've been at this for over an hour straight, how can you take it? And over and over! I'm sore in places I didn't know I had, my hands are numb, and I won't be able to walk straight for a week! And it's too big to fit in there!" Mousse clutched a hand to his nose as images came to mind unbidden. He'd seen Ranma's female body almost naked before, and he knew the womanizer preferred women (even if he had seen Ryoga trying to seduce him just the past week), but this? Although it did explain a few things. He considered that maybe he should come back later and accuse the pervert Saotome about everything when he, uh, she wasn't so busy. Another muffled growl came from the clearing, and a cry of "I'm going to make you BEG me to finish you off!" before Saotome's retort of "I'd love ya ta try!". Mousse fled, blood trailing down both nostrils.

Inside the clearing, Ranma was secured to a large boulder by enough chains as thick as her arms to make her look like a metal-wrapped ball with a head. Rei, or more accurately Sailor Mars, was panting hard in exertion and frustration, as she picked up the entire boulder, planting herself in a solid stance. It was terror on her legs, holding up that much weight, and her arms weren't doing much better. Even with the magic of the uniform keeping her hands from getting ground down from the rough metal and stone they were still numb from the repeated grabbing and holding of rocks easily three times as big as she was. Still, Ranma had insisted it was good training, and needed to be done. Before she could stop and question herself again, she took the wrapped boulder, aimed, and threw it at the gap between a pair of trees bordering the cliff-face. It clipped one of the trees taking out a chunk of the bark (and getting a groan from Ranma) before plummeting over and landing in the river below with a splash.

Giving a satisfied shout of "Is that enough for you?!" she took the momentary break to catch her breath, collapsing to the ground and wondering why she'd gone along with this crazy plan. It was training, Ranma had insisted. Strap her to a boulder, and throw it over the ravine. Ranma would learn to teleport and use it to escape before the boulder went over the cliff. So far she'd been chaining the redhead to the boulder and chucking her over the cliff time after time again, securing the chains tighter and tighter each time under mocking jibes, and now her muscles were burning and she wanted nothing more than to collapse in her own bed, or at least her tent. Ranma had even insisted that she try to get the rock through the narrow gap between the two trees (after spitting a mouthful of wood chunks from when the rock had hit a tree and rolled to the side), just to make things harder for her. And she couldn't even get a chance to properly rest, as right on time the sodden redhead emerged from the cliff, scowling in frustration but hardly winded.

"Ya need ta chain someone up better, yaknow. Got free in seconds once it landed. Never gonna learn how ta move like he does if I can jus' slip free." Ignoring the rising ire of the sailor scout Ranma picked up another large boulder from a pile she'd carved free from a nearby rock face (using her bare hands in a truly impressive display of speed and strength Mars badly wanted to duplicate one day). Setting it down she passed Mars the length of chain she'd dragged up the cliff, and waited. "Look, I'm almost there. Few more tries, kay? For me?" and gave the sweetest smile she could. Mars eventually slumped her shoulders in defeat, then started to wrap the smaller girl up once more. "The things I do for a friend," she muttered.

* * *

"And you're sure it would stop my curse?" Ryoga asked, hope in his voice.

"Your directional curse, at least. Your problem is you're attuned to the wrong planet, you inherited some of my sense of time, but your sense of space is still based on a different planet entirely." Sailor Pluto took another sip of her coffee as Ryoga nursed a cup of tea, organizing her thoughts. "I'm not entirely sure it would work, but it's a good shot."

"And it would give me power too, of course. Might even be able to beat Ranma."

She shrugged. "Maybe, but you know the real reason for power, to protect those who can't protect themselves. That was the point of the entire Lunarian Army, senshi and soldier alike. There's always a price for power, it's one of those laws even magic can't get around. And the greater the power the greater the price."

Ryoga mulled that one over and stared into his tea as if the leaves on the bottom would spell out the answer for him. "It'd help my direction curse, and I might even be able to defeat Ranma and win Akane over, show her what a jerk he is. But- how do you decide this sort of thing?" He looked up at the woman across the table, his grandmother he called her but she'd always been 'grandmother' down the Hibiki family history. He had no clue how old she really was, but she probably made the old Chinese mummy seem like a newborn. And still never looked a day over her mid-thirties. He probably wouldn't believe it if he hadn't seen weirder and been part of weirder still.

Taking another sip before setting down the empty mug, Pluto gave a small shrug. "Really, it's up to you. You've been doing well so far, from what you've told me, even if you're not telling me the whole story." She gave him a look that suggested she knew _exactly_ what he had left out, and made him feel five years old again.

Ryoga stretched and yawned wide, then nodded. "I guess I'll have to think on it." Picking up his bag he wandered off. It was odd, he thought as he passed the third replica of that giant free-standing set of doors, he never did get lost in this place.

* * *

By the next day, Ranma and Rei were trudging back to the Hikawa Shrine, tired but victorious. After a day and a half of training the two of them ended up talking over lunch. Rei had asked how Ranma managed to hide her costume, and in turn Ranma explained some basics of the ki-pocket trick she'd learned. Most of the explanation went right over Rei's head, but she asked that since the pocket went with Ranma, what would happen if she put herself in a ki pocket? And where would she end up if she escaped? That led to an immediate trip to the boulder and chain, and with a perfect pitch between the two trees the rock dropped over the cliff and out of sight. Before the splash however Ranma suddenly appeared in the clearing (getting a shriek of surprise from Mars), pumping her fists in triumph before toppling over unconscious. Apparently she'd figured out the trick mid-flight and managed to put it into practise, but doing so drained most of her ki reserves all at once. Still, she had to admit it was a good trick and might be good in battle, even if she could only do it the once.

As they emerged from the shrine after stashing the camping gear, there was a disturbance. It looked like some sort of fight ended as a winged tailed youma in some sort of dress was fighting what looked like an old bald gnome, as he kept trying to grope her chest and she dodged. Eventually she put a hand on him and there was a visible flow of energy, leaving the diminutive pervert weakened enough that a solid two-fisted smash to the head sent him out unconscious before he hit the ground. The two girls glanced at each other and shared a nod, Rei pulling out her transformation wand and Ranma dashing back inside briefly.

Nekaru huffed in annoyance. Days of watching the two from the sides unobserved, days of observation and boring notes and little sleep in uncomfortable bushes, and in the end all of it had been undone by that stupid freaky pervert gnome! This really wasn't her day, but all she had to do was escape before the sailor senshi made an appearance. As she turned to run there was a shout behind her of "Halt, youma!" She gave a sigh of defeat and turned around; this really wasn't her week.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars posed together. "We should respect our elders, even if they are perverted!" shouted Mars. Moon just shrugged and added "Even if we've wanted to do the same thing ourselves. You'll have ta teach me the trick fer next time I meet'm." She remained unapologetic even after Mars gave her a glare.

Nekaru dropped into a vague imitation of a fighting stance, starting to sweat. She wasn't a combat youma! She knew she wouldn't be able to last long against one of them, and **certainly** not against two at once! But she wasn't going to go down without a fight! So she readied to try one of her tricks to control the battle, before another shout behind her came. "Youma! The elderly are to be venerated and cared for in their time left, not to be drained for evil! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

Nekaru spun about, groaning. Now there was TWO of that blasted Sailor Moon? One maybe she could handle, two was far out, and four sailor senshi was so far past possible even she couldn't see it any more. This wasn't her month, year even! At least the two Moons were just as surprised, pointing at each other. "YOU!" they both cried at the same time. "Who are you? Stop _copying_ me! _**I'm**_ Sailor Moon!" They paused again at the same time, in a completely synchronized move. "Ice cream!" they both shouted in unison, leading to a pair of startled looks. "Just shouted first food that came to mind," they both explained to their partners before charging at each other to meet in the middle and start a shouting match. This was getting a bit freaky for her, so while they argued Nekaru turned to run again.

However before she could get more than a few steps, a growl stopped her cold. It was the sort of growl that caused a shiver to run down her spine and make her ears fold back in terror. It was accompanied by surprisingly loud stomps from the boots of a blue-clad sailor warrior. "YOU! YOUMA! I wanted to have a normal life because of you! I was going to get into a good university, go on to medical school, and become a doctor or a scientist! Find someone I liked, marry, both of us working in the same ward! It was all planned! Then your kind came along!" She advanced, Nekaru backing up step by step until she found herself pressed up against a tree. "I was conscripted into this war I didn't want, and now I don't have time to study! My grades are slipping, I'm not getting any sleep because I have to patrol each night, even my mother is starting to wonder and we only see each other _one night a week_!" Sailor Mercury advanced until she was almost screaming in the frightened youma's face, jabbing her with a finger. "Because of you I have to lie to my mother about what I'm doing, because of you I have to listen to Sailor Moon blather on about her darling boyfriend she doesn't even know in person, because of you I have to be here defending some old pervert who apparently deserved it! And for that..." and she trailed off for a moment, everyone leaning in to listen. Her face wrapped up into a grin of madness, of someone pushed a bit too far who'd just snapped. "And for that, I'm going to _**punish**_ you." As she reached forward Nekaru let out a whimper, but there was nowhere left to run.

To the side, Mars just watched in amazement, too stunned to even begin to consider who to help (she was pretty sure she was meant to fight youma, but at this point it would probably take two of her plus the youma to even make it an even match-up). She gave a wince and tried not to be sick; she was pretty sure limbs weren't meant to bend that way.

The two Moons had their argument broken by that shouting, and finally turned to look at each other. Tall twin-tailed blonde looked down at shorter twin-tailed blonde, both in the same outfit, ignoring the cries of pain and what sounded like cracking bones from the side. "So, Sailor Moon?" asked the shorter one. The taller one nodded, and replied "Sailor Moon?" to which she got a nod back. "Ya know, one of us is gonna hafta change..." the shorter quipped. That got a smirk from the taller blonde. "I don't know, I think I like the idea of having someone else to do the job. Now I can sleep without Luna nagging me all the time about 'Sailor Moon you have to go on patrol! Sailor Moon, you have to fight the youma! Sailor Moon, you have to apply yourself in school!'. Blegh, I already have a mom, I don't need a cat one too!"

The shorter moon shuddered at that. "Blegh. You have a c-c-c-c..cat tellin' ya what ta do? All I get is a fat lazy panda, keeps goin' on 'bout 'family honour' and ta be a 'proper man' not a 'weak little girl'." That got a confused look to which she shrugged. "Long story. Name's Ranma Saotome." She gave a bow which the taller returned. "I'm Usagi Tsukino. It's nice to meet you, hopefully we can be friends. We are in the same job after all!" That got a bit of shared laughter from both of them as they briefly turned to watch the 'fight' then turned away with a shared cringe and shudder. The shouts of "Don't worry! I'm studying to be a doctor! I won't _let_ you die!" made it far worse. "She always like that?" Ranma asked, gesturing with a thumb. Usagi shook her head and drooped sadly. "She's been under a lot of stress, and she isn't much good in most fights. It's probably best to let her get it out of her system. The last time I tried to stop her..."

Ranma watched the taller girl stare off into the distance, like some sort of war veteran recalling a battle. Snapping her fingers to get Usagi's attention she sat down on the grass opposite the other moon senshi. "Two youma, two solo, and a dark general. Well, ok, not sure we killed him, but we sent him packing."

"Three youma, two solo, no general yet," Usagi replied. "Sailor Mercury, she has a supercomputer doohickey and is great at tactics and intel. She can also do some sort of cold mist that blinds enemies, but not much for offence."

"Sailor Mars, she's great at fire, an' a shrine maiden and kinda priestess so she can do ofuda things that paralyse dark kingdom guys for a bit, if we get it on 'em. Not great wit' overall tactics beyond 'burn it with fire'."

The two Moons considered each other in (relative) quiet. "So why're you really in this?" Usagi-Moon asked finally. "Not the whole 'because you're Sailor Moon' thing."

"I'm a martial artist at heart. Use the Art to protect the weak who can't defend themselves. You?"

Usagi mulled that over. "The same, I guess. I can't stand to see people suffer, so I can't stand back and do nothing if I was able to stop things."

That got another nod as the two shared further silence, punctuated by the occasional scream from the youma, laugh from Mercury, and quiet retching from Mars. Ranma was the one who broke it this time. "So what's with the whole thing? The whole act." At the confused reply Ranma shook her head. "The ditz thing. 'M not the best at social junk, but I can read people pretty good. She thinks you're a bit empty-headed, and stuff. That takes an act, a long act. Why?"

Usagi Moon just laid back on the grass. "You know, if this had happened back when I was thirteen or fourteen, it wouldn't be an act. I was really a crybaby back then, but I matured. Somewhat. Then out of nowhere, this talking cat tells me I'm the reincarnation of some warrior from a long lost kingdom on the moon of all places, and I have to be Sailor Moon to fight off the evil kingdom that destroyed them since the queen couldn't get rid of them when she died. Then I get a full two decades worth of memories of a long dead princess crammed sideways into my head, all at once. I had dreams, I was going to be some sort of athlete or even a pop idol like that Mina Aino. Instead I end up spending my days flunking school because I spend my nights fighting the Dark Kingdom and all their youma. I still wake up some days thinking I'd be up in the lunar palace, or wondering where my retainers are. Or some times I wake up right as I'm killed." She shivered at that. "So forgive me if I act a bit immature," she finished acerbically.

Ranma winced. "That sucks. Ya act immature cause yer too mature. Makes sense. Think ya could use a friend. Call me Ranma, jus' don't try'n make me yer fiance, kay?"

Usagi giggled in turn. "Call me Usagi, and only if you don't try to do the same."

Both of them turned to look over at the battle. The youma was lying on the ground whimpering, wings bent at a weird angle, tail knotted about one of her legs, and Sailor Mercury was busy sitting atop her bending an arm back with a frankly disturbing grin on her face like she was enjoying herself a bit too much. The two Sailor Moons shared a nod, and then moved in unison.

Sailor Mercury bent a bit more until there was a crack and a sob underneath her. She had to admit she was getting a bit too worked up, she shouldn't have lost her temper like that but now she was enjoying herself immensely. She knew this one youma wasn't responsible for all the problems she'd been facing, and she hadn't even seen it draining more than that one person's energy (and that was after he apparently molested her). If she'd been in her right mind she'd be disturbed with herself and consider psychoanalysis of some deep-seated repressed id urges, and probably more than a bit unnerved at how hot and bothered this level of violence was getting her, but in the heat of the moment she could dismiss it as physical exertion and sweat. That's all it was, of course. She was about to bend the other arm back when a hand caught her arm and held it like a steel trap. When she moved to free herself the other arm was caught by another hand, and she was pulled to her feet. "It's ok, Ami, she's not your enemy. Not anymore." Pulling the blue senshi into a hug, Sailor Moon continued to soothe the girl while the other Moon dragged the battered youma off to the side to safety, where Mars helped with the injuries. "It's ok, you don't have to fight anymore tonight. It's ok to be frustrated, but you don't need to fight. You can relax and be Ami again." Gently stroking the girl's back and letting her cry into a shoulder, she gave a nod over her shoulder at the other two senshi, then quietly led her off to a private spot to power-down.

Tuxedo Mask suddenly leapt down from a tree, cape swirling behind him in a dramatic fashion. "Sailor Moon! Believe in yourself! You can defeat-" and trailed off to look about. There was the mock-Moon, as well as another senshi in red, looking up from their tending of some poor victim of what must have been a youma attack. Only the youma could be so vicious. However he'd taken so long bringing his token of his affection along that he'd missed the battle entirely! Now what was he going to do with a rented karaoke machine, and who would help him get it out of the tree?

Nekaru laid back, giving the occasional little twitch and whimper in pain as the pair of girls tried to deal with her wounds best they could. All she really needed was some rest to regenerate. All things considered it had gone well, sure she was in more pain than she had believed possible without Queen Beryl and her generals tag-teaming, but she was alive after one of the sailor senshi had gone to town and back on her, and that was no small feat. Sure it was only because that little pervert gnome had far more life energy in that small fraction she absorbed than any dozen people had total, but she'd call it a victory. She even knew that she could tell Lord Jadeite that the plan would work. Maybe he'd be so proud of her that he'd let her retire for good, without the usual interpretation of a swift death that tended to mean. Heck, maybe she could join him and they could fight and plan together. As if that would happen, she doubted he was even in to girls considering the stories she heard about the Dark Generals. At this point however anything seemed better than fighting another of those demons.

* * *

Long after Ryoga was out of sight (for the final time), Pluto shook her head and cleaned up the dishes with a wave of her hand. Technically she wasn't supposed to use magic like that, but there was no one left to tell on her for it. Or to tell on her to. At least she had descendants, even if she kept outliving them. And Ryoga was a sweet kid, even if he was so wrapped up in defeating this Ranma character. She wished at times she was allowed to use the gate as some sort of soothsayer device, and watch the future, but no, all she could get was the past, and that was all stuff that had happened already. It was probably a good thing, she'd end up obsessed with a specific future outcome and who knows what ends she would go to enforcing it if she could see every little disturbance and upset. She'd probably go mad. Still, it would be nice to be able to see what impacts she'd had on things to come, even the once.

Ignoring that still-present sense of unease and subtle wrongness, she de-transformed into her Setsuna Meioh guise, grabbed her coat and purse, and wandered into the dark to go to the nightclub she frequented. She needed a drink.


	4. Terror in the Skies

A/N: And here we go! It should be relatively clear which "Sailor Moon" is meant when two are about, but in almost every other scene they either don't know the difference, or only one of them is about. This one took a while, mostly taking 10,000+ words. Not sure it's my best work, but it's hopefully not my worst. Enjoy.

A/N2 (Author's note squared? Does the impact decrease by inverse of each note?): The ending has been tweaked and rewritten. I was reminded of some things I'd premised I'm sorry to admit I had forgotten about, and I needed to do some salvage on it. Plus this actually goes more into my next planned chapter better. I know I sometimes do little tweaks to chapters post-upload but if you've read this chapter, don't be afraid to reread the last section of it.

* * *

Jadeite prowled menacingly in his lair. Actually he was pacing in his room and wearing a groove into the plush carpet, but it sounded more impressive to call it a lair. And prowling was the sort of thing he had practiced, even if he wasn't half as good as the other generals or even some of the youma. Perhaps he didn't have that killing spirit, or perhaps he didn't have enough self-confidence to give off that 'you will die, it is a promise' vibe that was needed. Possibly the latter, he admitted to himself.

He was already on thin ice with Queen Beryl, he knew the other generals were just waiting for the chance to tear out his throat (metaphorically, he hoped) and claim his spot, and he remembered- well, he remembered what had happened the one time. And it wasn't pleasant. As if any of them would have a chance against four sailor scouts popping out of the woodwork like that, it wasn't until he'd gotten the report from Nekaru he was even _aware_ there was four of them. The other generals likely still believed Sailor Moon was the decoy off in Europe or something.

He froze mid-step as a thought occurred to him: if Moon was here in Tokyo, then who was that over there? Was there _five_ now? A chill ran down his spine at that. Although, he had to admit it seemed off, the one Sailor Moon he'd faced wasn't the same as the others, something about her reminded him of Queen Beryl as well as a half-memory of green eyes and blue eyes and red hair both. He vaguely remembered something from back during the fall, when the youma had swarmed the castle and he'd faced the senshi in combat and that look in steel blue eyes of anger and betrayal and shut up _shut up_ _**shut**_ _ **UP**_ -

Thankfully he was roused from his thoughts by the quiet knock on his door. Leaping at the distraction he nearly tripped on the footstool he'd kicked aside in his pacing, hopping on one leg as he straightened himself out, then smoothing out his hair he opened the door. Nekaru was there, and she looked like he had after facing the two Sailor Senshi, possibly worse. Wordlessly she handed him a copy of her report, then turned around and left without so much as a by your leave. Closing the door he was already too engrossed in the report to hear her passing out at his doorstop with a thump, or the murmurs from other generals at the sight of the dishevelled exhausted youma right outside their fellow general's door, her outfit torn shreds and only her natural fur providing any modesty she might have. By the morning the news had spread that Jadeite was one of _those_ sort, not that there was anything wrong with preferring youma, of course not, but there'd been rumours about him before...

Jadeite continued to read late into the night, oblivious. Four of them, already split into two pairs. There were two Sailor Moons, and she'd only seen one of them doing any training, the other preferring to pretend to be an ordinary girl when not fighting. Pretend, yes, he knew they were all dangerous opponents, yes, and he knew not to underestimate them. His plan would work this time, and finally he would be the one in control, and nothing would stop him this time, not even Sailor Moon!

* * *

Ranma Saotome sneezed, then sniffled a bit with a sigh. He'd come down with something after the training trip, likely from the repeated plunging into freezing cold river water while tied up. He'd learned the technique in the end, but it was still too intensive to use as more than a last resort, somehow sucking up all of his ki in the effort to fold himself into his own ki pocket, and still make sure he came out at the end. At least he didn't have to worry about the destination, inside it was a sort of a shadowy cold plane with half-visible images of the real world, occasional bright spots of light from where people with large auras moved. The bright spot of his old man, tinged with a sort of a yellow, Akane frustrated with homework burning red, Nabiki faintly glimmering in a cold icy blue, Kasumi in an even white (which surprised him, he hadn't expected her to have any sort of presence and he'd never felt one), even old man Tendo showed up in a sort of a weak green. In there everything seemed almost frozen, so he had plenty of time to hurry to his destination and hop out, appearing in the normal world fast enough to almost be instantaneous. He made a mental note to not only keep practicing to see if he could cut down the energy draw or at least build his reserves, but to also look into the whole 'ki vision' as he dubbed it; being able to outright see the life force of people was something invaluable, particularly when watching for opponents, since it would let him gauge how strong they were even when trying to hide from vision.

In the meantime however he curled back in the bed, coughing and sneezing once more before finishing off the light meal of three bowls of chicken soup Kasumi had made for him. He still felt all weak and tired, which naturally meant pops had been trying to beat the sickness out of him calling him weak enough to catch flu, and then Akane had tried to cook another 'hearty stew' for him, ending up with more of a heart-attack stew that as she had said included glue ("it says for extra-strong fixes!") and gasoline ("fuel gives off energy, we learned that in chemistry remember?") as well as a bit of drain cleaner ("I thought it was vinegar" she'd admitted)... well, after he'd had a reasoned and calm discussion of why they weren't things you put in food, and maybe a few words were spoken in haste, she'd smashed him over the head with a full dresser then stomped off in tears and he'd felt a bit bad and really should apologize. So maybe he'd gone too far calling her an 'uncute macho idiot tomboy who cooked as well as she swam and would never find someone who could look at her cooking without losing their last meal', but it was all true wasn't it?

So now he was lying in bed, feeling sorry for himself; he'd already chased off both old men when they charged in demanding he apologize right now for whatever he said and he in turn offered the bowl of congealed mass (held up by the spoon). He was going to apologize, as soon as she'd had a chance to calm down and wasn't breaking stacks of cinderblocks with bare-hands, and certainly not while she was pasting pictures of his face onto each one.

He pulled himself upright and rested on the windowsill, looking out and briefly wondering where Ryoga had gotten to; he'd wanted to ask him how best to make it up to Akane, but the porker had vanished. Maybe he should call up Rei or Usagi and see if they had any advice for how to apologize. What he needed was a sign.

* * *

Ryoga Hibiki didn't even look at the map of Hokkaido crumpled in his fist as he wandered through the streets of what must be Montreal, passing the replica of Tokyo Tower they had there. He wondered briefly why they'd go to all that trouble to imitate it complete with all the lighting, but he didn't pay it much attention. Canadians were weird, but at least they all spoke Japanese. Right now however his mind was on more serious things, including a certain pigtailed martial artist and an offer from Pluto. All he had to do was agree to the power, and it would curb the repeating dreams of an impossible past, it would cure his directional sense, it would let him be there to help Akane when she needed it and show her how he was the one for her. He could even defeat Ranma once and for all. All he would have to do was agree to the contract that had been in his family for countless ages in an unknown dialect, and give up, well, something. He wasn't sure what, but he'd gotten the impression it was something big. Of course he had no clue what, since no one could read the contract and Pluto wasn't telling ("it wouldn't be a fair deal," she'd explained, "since you would know beforehand exactly what the cost was").

He sighed, and sat down on a park bench, head in his hands. All he had to do was agree, and then he could charge right there without getting lost, go up to Ranma, and tell him- Well, tell him. And maybe beat him up for good measure and no small bit of payback. Part of him felt it would be cheating, but the other part knew he needed the leg-up, and it'd still be his skills behind everything. Finally, fists to the sky, he shouted up to the kami, "GIVE ME A SIGN!".

* * *

Ami Mizuno sighed. It had been such a simple plan: she and Usagi would go to see the new senshi of Mars, a Rei Hino, who lived in a shrine with her grandfather. There they would meet Ranma Saotome, the other Sailor Moon, and everyone would have a chance to talk and Ranma would show them some combat moves to help fight youma. However, apparently Ranma was sick and stuck at home, and Rei supposedly was too sore after her own training earlier that week to try anything more than lying on her bed reading a manga. Naturally Usagi had seen the cover and exclaimed how she hadn't read that one, then swiped it out of Rei's hands. That led to a shouting match back and forth between the two, with Ami staying out of it. It seemed the only person Rei really made friends with was Ranma. She hoped the girl was getting plenty of fluids and rest, the way Rei had described her Ranma was prone to ignoring her problems and working out until they went away. If you replaced working out with studying it would sum up Ami perfectly.

Unfortunately this sort of argument was likely endemic of something bigger, like her apparent friendship with Usagi. If she wanted to be bluntly honest, if it wasn't for their shared senshi status she never would have even met either two girls, and she wasn't sure if she was happy or let down by that fact. She really should bring it up with them, before they tore each other to pieces or said something neither one could take back, but she didn't want to get involved either. Staring out the window, she gave a silent plea to the heavens: all I need is a sign!

* * *

Luna, the advisor-mau of a long-dead empire, curled up on the bed. She wasn't sure of how things were going. Yes she'd found Sailor Moon, and yes she'd awoken Sailor Mercury too, but apparently Sailor Mars had not only awoken on her own, but had done so alongside someone who was claiming to be Sailor Moon. She knew that was a lie, but what sort of game was this person playing? The obvious conclusion was some Dark Kingdom plot, but apparently the two of them had not only faced but nearly killed one of the Dark Generals in combat. It was possible, she admitted, that it was a very deep-cover setup to gain the trust of Sailor Mars, but it did seem a lot of trouble to go to. Perhaps the infiltrator was trying to catch them all together? Yet apparently she was responsible for the other youma attacks that had been defeated before Moon and Mercury could arrive on-scene, and now when the three senshi were meeting she was sick at home in bed.

Really, it didn't make any sense: either she was some assassin who was ignoring all the best chances, was some spy who was sitting elsewhere instead of gathering info, was some impersonator pretending to be Moon for some reason of her own, or the worst option of all was someone who actually believed she was Sailor Moon, which meant even now she could be plotting how to eliminate the _real_ Moon and take her place. It didn't help that the girl was supposedly afraid of cats and had vehemently refused to come if Luna would be there, so instead she was sitting at home and the girl still hadn't even shown up! What was she _planning_? She'd even called Control with all her concerns, and had been told to wait and see what developed.

Really, she needed some clue or plan, and staring up at the stars that once held a system-spanning empire of magic and beauty, she silently pleaded for a sign, for anything to tell her what to do.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba wasn't looking at the sky, or even awake. He'd been missing gaps of his memory, and that meant he hadn't been doing homework for his courses, and now he was behind. After a long cram session and an all-nighter to finish an essay due the next day, he'd gotten home, managed a quick bowl of instant ramen, and then collapsed into bed fully clothed and asleep before he hit the pillow. The only sign he wanted was 'stop' so he could get his life together.

* * *

Many people across Tokyo happened to be looking at the sky at that moment, so when the sky rippled and the giant face of a blond man with handsome features appeared in it, there was mass panic from everyone watching, senshi and civilian alike. The man turned to the side as if to look for someone, and then glanced back down. "SAILOR SENSHI!" he shouted in a booming voice that resonated across the city, buildings and streets shaking as if a minor earthquake had passed. The man looked sheepish for a moment, his head sliding out of the image and muttering inaudible, before he reappeared. "Sailor senshi!" he declared in a far less thunderous voice. "I know you are listening, Sailors Mars, Mercury, and both Moons! I... am the great Heavenly General Jadeite! You have been a thorn in my side, and now it has come the time to end it! Meet me tomorrow night at the Tokyo Airport, or- what do you mean there's more than one?" The giant head moved out of frame again, only the side of his head visible. "No, I wanted to challenge them! It's just- yes I know that, I just figured that the airport would- do **you** want to issue demands then? No? Then let me- fine!" Moving back into the image the giant Jadeite smoothed out his hair. "As I was saying, meet me tomorrow night at the Tokyo International Airport, the newer one, Narita apparently? The one in Chiba. Just take the train straight from- look, it's not important. Meet me there, or this happens!"

With that massive hands appeared in the image, spraying fire everywhere, and the entirety of the city was ablaze. Moments later once people realized nothing was actually burning the fire vanished as if it was never there. "Yes. Or that will really happen! Remember, tomorrow night! Perhaps about ten, that would give me time to, I mean, give you time to ponder your fate! Or your precious city will burn!" With that he remained still for a few moments, then turned to face away. "Well, I think that went rather well, don't you? I hope this works, I mean, it doesn't give me much time to prepare, and I still have to get my best suit back from the cleaners, and I want my hair to be perfect for my big- is that thing still on?" He swore, then spun around and the palm of a massive hand was visible across the sky before the image vanished.

* * *

Elsewhere, a green-haired woman sighed and rolled back in the bed to snuggle back up with her current bedmate and tried to relax again. She'd had a wonderful time dancing, and then met someone wonderful who seemed to somehow understand her. He'd said he was a doctor of a sort, she'd introduced herself as a guard of a sort, and then they went on a lovely night out taking in the sights across the world in one destination after another, which was perfect for forgetting about her job and empty penance for a dead empire. And then of course this had to happen.

"What is it?" he asked, propping himself up on an elbow to look out the window.

"Nothing, just some lunatic making a challenge using the sky as a giant video screen."

"Oh, I hate it when that happens. No consideration for people who might be asleep or just can't be bothered with whatever is supposed to be so important." He gave a dismissive wave. "I find most of those things tend to solve themselves anyways without intervention."

"My thoughts exactly. Now, come on, the night's still young," and shutting the drapes behind her she rolled over to the man for the next round and promptly smothered the voice of unease in her head with another kiss.

* * *

The next day had been predictably busy, with everyone discussing the challenge of the previous night. Many people were convinced it was a hoax, or some sort of publicity stunt for an upcoming movie, or even a group of bored kids with access to impressive video projection devices. A smaller group of people were convinced that it was legitimate, mostly those who had already seen the Sailor Senshi in action. The police were denying there was a threat but had shut down and evacuated the airport in anticipation and directed all flights elsewhere.

The teachers hadn't even tried to get the class to pay attention, and in some cases were joining in on the gossip themselves, eventually cancelling classes. After a tense meal with everyone trying not to think about the supposed threat, Ranma finally stood up to leave.

"Where are you going, boy?" Genma demanded, as Ranma gave another cough and held back a sneeze. "If you're so weak as to catch illness, you're too weak to go out. You should stay here and let your fiancée take care of you!"

Akane turned away with a hmf. "Who'd want to help a jerk like him?" she protested, crossing her arms and refusing to look his direction. Ranma in turn just sighed and drooped his head. He'd tried to apologize earlier but she'd refused his "sorry for calling your horrible toxic waste inedible". Apparently he still needed a proper way to apologize; maybe he could find something on the way to the airport battle. Maybe she'd appreciate that Jadeite guy's jacket. Girls liked clothing, right? Giving another cough, he sighed. "I'm, uh... goin' to the airport battle thing."

It seemed that wasn't the right response. "That was a challenge to those senshi, you can't interfere in a battle between men!" Genma declared, crossing his arms.

"Girls," Nabiki corrected, munching on a few after-dinner cookies. "The senshi are girls, teenagers. Maybe Ranma was going to check them out."

Akane fumed, then remembered she was angry at Ranma. "Who cares what he does? Let him be a pervert to whomever he likes. Maybe those senshi girls will find out and beat him up. That'll show the jerk." With that said she stomped off to the dojo to go ruin more innocent bricks before bed.

Genma flared his aura up to try and intimidate Ranma. "You go and apologize to your fiancée right growf growf!" and the new panda shook out his fur from the glass of water dumped on his head by his still-coughing son. "Look, pops, I'm goin' ta the battle, 'k? Ya know how it's a martial artist's duty and stuff ta help out, if this Jadeite guy's serious as he sounds I haveta help. S'my job." With that he turned to leave, but Nabiki passed him an envelope marked "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL THE AIRPORT". "Wha? How'd ya-?" he asked, looking around, but she'd already vanished. Giving a shrug he stuffed it into a pocket and left the house to grab a train.

* * *

It was nine at night when a shivering coughing blonde-wigged redhead dragged herself to the Hikawa shrine's steps, where the other three girls were waiting. Mostly waiting, it was obvious that there'd been some sort of argument with the way Rei and Usagi were occasionally glaring daggers at each other and steadfastly not talking to each other. Ami was listening to something on her earpiece, entire posture and expression curled up and withdrawn in a 'I'm not here, I'm not part of this, leave me alone' way. Upon seeing Ranma however Rei and Usagi both visibly brightened up, smiles on their faces before catching each other's expression and trading more glares. Ami merely gave a sad smile and sigh.

"They've been like that since yesterday. We need to get going. Are you up for this? You look, um, peaky."

Ranma smiled back and gave a thumbs-up, while swaying on her feet. "'mfine. Jus' a bit a fever, s'all." She gave another cough and grimace. "Jus... hate skirts, legs cold, shouldn't be wearin' sumfin like 'm. 'm guy, I think. Least able ta move." She gave a high-kick at head-height to demonstrate.

The three girls looked the redhead over as she gave another cough. "Not many guys or girls have legs like that." "I know I'd- I mean, _other_ girls would love to have a bust like that, guy or not." "You're still the same sexy-butt Ranma, even when you're a guy too."

Ami and Usagi turned to stare at Rei. "What?" she said. "There's a curse involved, and I'm not stupid. And it **is** a sexy butt, and she's flashing it with those high kicks." She glanced back and forth at the twin stares. "Look, can we go over this when we're not about to fight a Dark General to save the city from destruction? Don't worry, Ranma, your secret's safe with me." Ranma gave another thumbs-up with a weak smile, obviously not quite following in her state but apparently glad everything was fine.

"That's good, so, how do we get to the airport in half an hour?" Usagi asked, glancing at her watch. "Ranma's already transformed, we should probably do so too, but even I can't run there that fast on foot, and I'm on the track team."

Ranma gave a cough. "Took th' train, they're shutting em down, safety or somethin'. All empty."

Ami nodded. "I think I can fix that. Let's hurry."

* * *

It was already half past when the train pulled up to the airport, the barricade and police officers moving up to investigate. Wandering up and down the train, they eventually reported back. "It's empty," one of the officers said. "Looks like the automated system took over when someone forgot to shut the train down or remove the safety lock. We're lucky it didn't cause an accident."

The on-site sergeant took a sip of his cup of coffee and made a face. "At least no one was on it. Go back to watching the perimeter, we're here to stop anyone from getting in."

Unnoticed four fuku-clad figures quietly leapt off the roof of the train to land past the fence in the shadows. Glancing about and one stifling another coughing fit they shared a nod before moving in.

Equally unnoticed a fifth figure watched from the shadows, then with the faintest hint of a sigh moved on to follow at a distance.

It was eerie the way all the lights were off, Sailor Mercury decided, and the fact that only the emergency runway lights were lit highlighting the strips of tarmac without illuminating the area made it far worse. Of course she knew it was some sort of trap, Jadeite had declared this area to be their meeting place and the Dark Kingdom was hardly bothered by a lack of lighting. While she knew the Dark Generals were human (and an unbidden memory not hers of just _how_ human made her blush) they were long since augmented by Dark Kingdom magic to see in the dark. Of course, Mercury was one to talk, well, think, as the Mercury Computer's visor included infra-red, ultra-violet, and low-light-amplification modes, as well as a very handy magnetic detection mode. There was even a magic visualizing mode, but when she tried it earlier and looked at Red Moon (as she'd mentally called Ranma, instead of Yellow Moon for Usagi) the visor had _**crashed**_ and thrown up a 'negative range' error. She hadn't tried again. She would have to ponder that riddle another time, when she wasn't wandering into the middle of a blatant trap.

As they approached the control tower, there was a rustling sound. They froze, and then what felt like a mass of rubber snakes wrapped about all of them, getting four collective shrieks as they all fell to the ground. All the lights suddenly snapped on, driving away the shadows on themselves and also one figure standing up on the rooftop of the control building, leaning against the tower cape billowing dramatically. Not that they could see details in the suddenly bright light, and apparently neither could Jadeite. "Aggh too bright! Ahh... there goes my good first impression." Taking a moment to turn aside and rapidly blink to clear his vision he looked down at the girls. "Sailor Scouts! You have finally-"

"Senshi. We're the Sailor Senshi. Warriors," Mars corrected him as she struggled to get free of what looked like hoses that were wrapped tight about her.

"I guess I am or was more of a scout myself. Most of my abilities are tactical after all," added Mercury, wriggling a little.

Jadeite let off a slight growl. "What? Senshi or Scouts, it's not important! What is important is that you've fallen-"

"Why are we the 'sailor' senshi anyways? I mean, I don't think I've been on a boat in my life," Moon asked, glancing at the others. "Or did the Lunarian Empire just go with the 'sailor fuku' thing the whole way? The naming of that was before my time and all, and Luna refuses to answer any 'trivial' questions, meaning she has no clue. Maybe it's a spaceship thing." She looked up at Jadeite. "Why are we the 'sailor' senshi? Do you know? And for that matter, who is the Dark King?"

Jadeite gave a blank uncomprehending stare. "The who?"

"The king! You're the 'Dark **Kingdom** ' after all. We're from the Lunarian Empire which was comprised of the associated inhabited planets of the solar system, so it was an empire instead of the, I don't know, Serenian Queendom. Maybe if the princess had taken over she would have called herself empress. I like the sound of that. Empress Usagi. Bow before me!" She wiggled a bit in the hose cocoon and looked back up at him. "But is there a king?"

"I thought it was the Silver Millennium," whispered Sailor Mars. "That was the name of the time period, not the empire," Sailor Mercury whispered back. "Oh!" exclaimed Mars, in a pleased whisper. "That explains so much!" "Wait, you didn't think they really named the empire the 'silver millennium', did you? A millennium is a timeframe, not a distance! That's like using parsecs as a unit of time!" That was met with silence and a sheepish look.

"Uh, there is a queen. Queen Beryl. But I'm not sure if she had anyone..." Jadeite replied with expression of bewilderment, answering the one mummified figure and ignoring the other two whispering back and forth. "Plus some sort of elder god horror she worships, but I don't think she follows it in 'that way' either. I hope not at least." He made a face, as did the others.

"So, why all of this?" Mars asked, finally. "I know you just want to rage about your new evil plan before we kick the crap out of you, again. And light you on fire and blow you up. Again. Maybe this time you'll stay dead."

Jadeite ground his teeth hard enough to make an audible crunching noise. " _ **Fine.**_ Sailor senshi scouts! I am here to- wait. Wasn't there four of you?"

A cough to his left was all the warning he got before a fist impacted with his face, almost throwing him off the building. It was followed up with a few more punches and a quick snap-kick from a tired-looking Sailor Moon, the shorter one. "Ya know, if yer gonna talk like that, make sure yer enemies 'rall distracted or stuff."

Jadeite leapt off the building, magic letting him hover facing her. "But I had you tied up and unable to move!"

Moon scratched her head then adjusted her wig again. "Really? Honestly, didn't notice. Can't've been much for bonds then, escaped far worse by now." She took a moment to cough and sway, leaning on the wall for support.

Jadeite growled. "Why are you here? You can barely stand!" as he raised his hands with a dark glow of energy building up about them, preparing to blast her into the next life.

"Don't need ta stand fer long. Ya needed ta focus ta keep'm tied. Have fun!" and giving a mocking wave, she jumped off the side of the building.

Still floating, Jadeite watched her drop into the shadows, then turned to have just enough time to raise his arms in defense as a fully loaded fuel tanker truck smashed into him and plowed him into the side of the control tower, which shook but stayed upright, a few bits of plaster pelting him. A moment later the license plate dropped off the back and bounced off his head. _"_ No problem, I know which it was," he murmured, before shaking his head to clear it and climbing out of the wreckage. "Agh, now my uniform is ruined! How dare- wait."

"-FLAME SNIPER!" finished the cry, and a bolt of flame lanced up towards him and the thousands of gallons of spilled jet fuel. Jadeite stared in panic at the second it took to realize what was up before the flame hit, and the entire thing went up like a bomb. The control tower had enough, and with a creaking rumbling it collapsed spilling burning debris and twisted bits of metal and glass outwards.

The other two senshi turned to stare at Mars. "Did... did you just... did you just throw a _tanker truck_ at him?" stammered Moon.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I was throwing boulders to help Other Moon practice, this was just a bit heavier, but the target was the same size. Maybe easier as the truck was so big. Hang on, do you think that was the intent? Hey Moon! Was that part of the training, so I could throw something like that?"

A growl came from the flaming debris as a wavering and visibly bleeding Jadeite clutched his side, backlit from the flames but still alive. "All right. Now I'm mad!" He made a sweeping gesture, then resumed holding his wound but smirking now.

The others readied to dodge, then glanced over when no attack was incoming. "Uh, I think you forgot the attack of your attack?" Moon quipped. The others glanced about, but it was Mercury who spotted it first. "Oh no, look out!" and she ran to the side. The others looked over in time to spot the unmanned jet liner approaching at full throttle, and ran sideways to avoid it, the plane turning impossibly tight as it started to home in on them. "Scatter!" shouted Mercury, and the three took off different directions down the runway. Two other jetliners roared to full engines and started following a senshi each as they ran along the runway, gaining bit by bit.

Jadeite laughed at that as he watched, then by instinct threw himself back as a sweeping roundhouse blurred through where his head had just been. Stumbling a little and groaning as the large wound was aggravated, he dodged another punch and kick, before trying to throw a punch of his own back. "You look like you're ready to pass out! How are you still trying to fight me?" he taunted, a sweeping kick twisted and using his flight to stop the throw it was turned into, trying to chop down at the girl who rammed an elbow into his held leg which got a cry as he pulled back and tried to massage life back into the limb.

"Could say th' same ta you. Wouldn'tcha rather give up'n treat that? Yer kinda bleedin.." she suggested, leaping up close and letting loose with a jackhammer of punches into his wounded side which collapsed him.

Jadeite spat out some blood and glared up at her. "Your mask fell off again," he taunted, and when Sailor Moon reached up to double-check he punched her in the arm with a fist glowing with dark energy. Moon collapsed with a cry, shuddering as dark lightning visibly crackled across her body.

* * *

Meanwhile, the other three sailor senshi were still running, Mercury panting hard as she struggled to keep away from the airplane after her. "Not... meant... for running.." she gasped, then spying Mars she started running towards her. The plane followed her perfectly, swerving again in ways that no real taxiing plane could manage. With that she tapped Mars on the shoulder and ran past, the two planes swerving to match before ramming into each other and coming to a stop. They only had a few moments to admire their victory before there was the sound of rotors announcing what looked like an attack helicopter, piloting itself like the jets had prior, the rapid fire machine guns opening fire. With it in the air the same trick wouldn't work twice, and being a helicopter it could hover and chase them to keep a perfect line on them at all times. Mars and Mercury shrieked and ran, trying to dodge the hail of bullets, and without paying attention ran across Moon, who suddenly scooped both of them up one over each shoulder, then herself ran. Even with the extra weight it was obvious she was faster than both of them, and she wasn't even winded. Still, the helicopter turned to target her and the remaining passenger jet continued to scream along the runway as fast as her.

Sailor Mercury was thankful she was at home in or on the water, and this sort of bouncing wasn't that hard on her stomach. But she was tired and her legs burned and she had shrapnel and fuel in her hair. Something did catch her eye as she glanced down at the side and did mental math. "You can run _eighty kilometers_ an hour?!"

"Only while transformed," Sailor Moon explained, swerving hard to the left to avoid the wreckage of another plane and at one point jumping and running up a tipped wing before leaping onto the ground to continue. "Only half that normal. Mercury, we need a plan..." she hissed, dodging back and forth while Mars did her best to fling fire up at the helicopter, which pulled some impressive aerial maneuvers to dodge that likely would have blacked out any pilots. "Even if it's as simple as 'dodge into the airport building and hide'. Unless it's 'run and dodge until they run out of bullets or fuel, then you can run instead!"

"Wait, aren't these uniforms bulletproof?" Mars asked between lobs of fire, while Mercury did her best to scan the aircraft while bouncing up and down on the blonde's shoulder.

"Only where they cover," remarked Mercury. "Everything but part of our arms and legs, and heads. Exposed major arteries, and, well, heads."

"See? We need leggings and sleeves! Who thought leotards and miniskirts were battle wear?!" Mars shrieked, then lobbed a ball of flame into a jet engine which caught fire before exploding and shredding the wing off. The aircraft tipped sideways, the other wing hit the ground, and it spun about before the landing gear snapped off and it screeched to a halt. Of course the helicopter continued to fire down at them, getting a groan from Moon as she ran.

"I can't keep running forever with both of you," Moon gasped, pulling another burst of speed which the copter kept up with. "Options! We need options!"

Mercury frowned, taking a moment to glance about and up at the attack helicopter. "Got it! Moon, keep running, I'm going to try something risky, but whatever dark magic Jadeite did is running without his direct control, so it must be some sort of automatic thing. That means it can't be doing threat assessment."

The yellow-pigtailed senshi huffed for breath as she kept dodging back and forth along the runway, ducking to slide underneath the wing of a crashed airplane before continuing on, ignoring the explosion behind her as it was raked by gunfire. "What does that mean, simple terms?"

"It means don't stop running, keep going that way!" and with that Mercury suddenly leapt free with a roll before running the other way.

"Mercury!" Sailor Mars shouted, struggling to get free, but Sailor Moon kept a tight grip and continued to dash and dodge. "She has a plan!" she cried to her passenger. "Trust her!"

Behind, Mercury watched the chopper pass over her chasing down the two moving senshi. "Just have to hope their engines are efficient, too much waste heat would ruin this," she muttered, before raising her hands. "Mercury... Ice... FREEZE!" and with that brought her hands together, the windshield starting to ice up before forming crystals, which quickly spread across the body. The engine sputtered and choked as the air intakes clogged with ice, before with a final sputter and click it died out, and the now-powerless helicopter spun and dropped to the ground to crash in a shriek of tortured metal and smashed glass. Sailor Mercury moved up to the smouldering wreckage, and posed. " _Ha!_ C12H26 and O2 gives CO2 and water! And guess what ice is? _**YOU!**_ " Trying not to do a victory dance she was grinning wide as she waltzed up to the two senshi who were watching her with no small measure of concern. "Come on! Let's go find Jadeite! There's over two hundred bones in the human body, and I want to break all of them one by one! Even the little ones in the ear! Ooohh, he is going to _scream!_ " She gave a happy little shiver and squirm, flushing bright red, before practically dragging the visibly disturbed pair with her towards the control tower ruins.

* * *

The three tired but still healthy senshi came up on the flaming wreckage in time to see Jadeite holding Ranma by the throat and repeatedly smashing her head into the the ground, Ranma bruised and bleeding and barely conscious. Red blood ran down her face to match her hair, wig abandoned to the side, and at some point Jadeite had apparently torn her mask off as he held it in his other hand. When he heard the other girls cry, he paused, looking over. "Well, I suppose I didn't really expect you to die. I wish I could say you would be as easy as her, but honestly even sick and barely standing I had to hit her with dark energy five separate times until she would stop hitting me." Ranma groaned and suddenly lashed out with a foot. It was a weak kick for her, but it still smashed like a loaded fuel truck into Jadeite's side, getting a groan from him and a bloody cough before his hands crackled again. Ranma twitched and screamed in agony before finally passing out.

"The irony is that normally I'd be able to take one of you out and then leave to heal up, but Queen Beryl has decided this is my last chance, so instead I either have to kill all of you or die myself." When they took battle stances he raised his other hand, still holding the domino mask. "I'm not so foolish as to try this sort of thing without evening the odds. One against three is hardly fair, and I don't have some army of youma mooks to help out. Just me, my fists, and my _magical tricks!_ " With a sweep of his hand the flaming rubble behind him started to flow upwards, projections outwards from the main bulk until it resolved itself into a vaguely humanoid form. Vaguely humanoid in that it had two massive tree-trunk sized arms, two even larger thicker legs, a body that was more a deformed ball, and what was the head because it was on top. The entire thing was also made of jagged metal and concrete shards. It was also on fire. Turning a pair of glowing flames that served for eyes at the massive figure raised its head and let out a roar that sounded like the screech of tearing metal, then charged the three girls at a speed faster than would be expected. Sailor Mars made the mistake of not dodging fast enough and was smashed in the stomach, throwing her back a good twenty feet before sliding on the asphalt and groaning. "I'm ok," she wheezed, pushing herself up. "Just winded. I think I'm also on fire," she added, glancing down where the ribbon of her uniform was blazing merrily. Patting it out she limped back to the other two who were dodging blows and trying to occasionally throw a blow back.

"What are the weak spots?" Moon shouted.

"I don't know!" Mercury shouted back. "I'm not seeing any! It's also too hot for me to get any ice around it!" She ducked as a blow whistled over her head, trying to stay back and use her scanner despite the monster not giving a clear opportunity.

"Moon Tiara!" Sailor Moon cried, throwing the sudden discus at the golem, where it proceeded to bounce off at an angle, then on the return trip bounce off the back of its head and return. The monstrosity didn't even seem to notice either time. "Wish I had some sort of elemental trick here like you two.."

"Mars Fire Sniper!" came the cry, and a bolt of fire swept past not towards the monster but towards Jadeite behind. It however swept a hand out to block the attack then growled with more screeching metal before picking up a twisted metal beam and throwing it like a javelin towards Mars. Sailor Moon saw it and shoved the other girl out of the way, to end up in the path instead where it proceeded to smash into her, sending her flying backwards and sliding along the runway before coming to a stop, sprawled out on the ground with the metal beside her, uniform fading away to reveal the light pants and blouse of her civilian clothes. Both girls screamed and ran towards her while the monster roared in triumph.

"She's alive," Mercury sighed in relief. "the uniform took the blow, I don't think there's any internal bleeding, her pulse and breathing seem relatively stable. But we're down both Moons, and we're short a plan."

"You don't have a plan?! Isn't that what you _do_?" cried the black-haired girl at the bluenette. "Can't you just figure something out?"

Mercury hissed in annoyance. "I might if I had something to work with here! The thing is immune to both our attacks, and punching it just made it angry. Both our teammates are down, we're both hurt and tired, Jadeite is going to burn the city down if we fail, the youma are going to swarm over everything like the proverbial plague of locusts, and you're going to blame me because I _can't think of a plan?!_ "

Mars took a half step back, then her eyes glinted. "Exactly. And then you'll have to live with that, meaning you won't be able to look in the mirror or fall asleep each night, all because of that guilt. And you know what?" she whispered, leaning in towards the shocked senshi. "When he burns down Tokyo, the University of Tokyo will go with it. Good bye world-recognized institute. And all because that giant metal monster was in your way."

Mars took a step back as the shocked horror on Mercury's face gave way to realization, and then from there to anger and it was a short step to pure frothing rage. Shouting something completely unintelligible the blue-haired berserker leapt towards the animated beast and when it took a swing at her she caught it in a makeshift over-shoulder throw, the monster landing with a heavy ground-shaking thud and new crater. She wasn't idle however, leaping on it and screaming inarticulate fury as ice caked about her fists in makeshift gloves for repeated smashes across the body. Giving a grimace Sailor Mars turned to limp towards Jadeite to hopefully finish him off.

* * *

Ranma groaned, having briefly come to once again. Everything hurt, in ways she hadn't felt since early in her training. Even Ryoga's fights hadn't come this close. Spitting up what seemed to be a loosened tooth she tried to push herself upright and found that her hands and legs were bound together by what seemed like black lightning, leaving her hogtied. She tried to roll over and make the world stop wavering and maybe get rid of that whining noise, but what she knew was a decent concussion wouldn't go away. Instead she rolled to her other side and tried to focus on what appeared to be Jadeite, sitting on a chunk of rubble and watching the show, still clutching the side of his blood-soaked jacket.

"You know, I'm surprised any of you have lasted this long," he remarked, without turning to look.

Ranma gave a few sick coughs and groaned as it made her head swim and body shudder. "Senshi don't lose," she muttered. "Not when't counts."

"Even understanding why you're doing this I'm amazed you keep doing it. You don't have a chance to win, but you can't stand to lose. Oh, here comes your friend."

Ranma glanced over at the blurry figure shakily making her way towards them, fire flaring about both hands ready to burn everything in her path. Then out of nowhere a second smaller lump of twisted metal wreckage tackled her from behind, and started to smash her with massive fists. Ranma winced and struggled again, but the bonds seemed to flex with her and none of the tricks she'd learned worked this time. She had one last-ditch idea, but she needed a distraction to recover, and she was all out of ideas. "Well," Jadeite remarked casually, as if talking about the weather. "I guess it's time to finish things properly. It's too bad, I'd been almost hoping you would pull through somehow. It's hard not to admire the underdog."

Out of nowhere the distraction came. "Styx Current!" was the cry and a bolt of what seemed to be pure force smashed into Jadeite, driving him to the ground and _into_ it, leaving a man-shaped crater of cracked pavement. "I am Sailor Charon, and I'm going to show you **_hell_**!" Ranma took the opportunity, grabbed what shredded remains of her ki were left about her, and pulled. She lasted long enough to appear to the side out of way before sinking into black unconsciousness once again.

Ranma came to with the sound of battle. She realized she ached and felt horrible, but somehow she still felt better than she had all day. She was exhausted and it felt like she had only caught maybe a few minutes of rest, but in that time her concussion had passed and she felt a little energy in her. The biggest advantage was she could move once again, so after double-checking no one was watching her she slowly pushed to her feet and flexed a bit to limber out her muscles. A quick glance about the area assessed the situation: Sailor Moon had changed back to Usagi, who was lying sprawled on the ground a twisted metal beam beside her. At least she could see her chest moving, she was still alive and breathing. To the other side was Sailor Mars, also unconscious and lying by a man-sized and shaped pile of burning metal wreckage. She was still breathing, although there were nasty bruises visible on her face and arms and legs. It also looked like the high-heel of one of her shoes had been driven like a spike into what looked like a welded metal helmet on the top of the wreckage. Behind her was Sailor Mercury, crouched over what looked like a giant human-shaped pile of wreckage, punching it and screaming obscenities. And near her-

Jadeite was busy fighting a dark-haired girl dressed in a similar outfit as the others, with white leotard and a black miniskirt capped with a yellow bow about her vest. For some odd reason she also wore a yellow leopard-print headband and was swinging what looked at first glance like an oar someone had sharpened the edge of into a monk spade. By the way she swung it it was obvious she knew how to fight, particularly the way she weaved past attacks Jadeite was making, taking hits of lightning-crackling fists but each hit endured meaning another slash with her weapon. For the oddest reason she looked familiar but Ranma couldn't place it.

Still, it was obvious she was losing, each strike sending crackling lightning across her body and getting a grimace or grunt of pain. She's tanking hits like Ryoga, Ranma mused. Did she undergo the Breaking Point training too? She'd have to ask after the battle, and for that they needed to win. Mentally steadying herself she let off a quick ki blast to get Jadeite's attention. It worked, and in turn he fired back a quick blast of dark energy. Perfect. She knew even distracted he'd be too canny for the dragon strike like last time, and her backup was unconscious, so it was time to do what she did best: improvise. "Some dark general! This many girls 'n ya can't even get ridda one! Wonder th' queen a yours don't wantcha!" It did the job and he began to burn in dark indignation and anger, lightning crackling across his body. "Yeah, 'n look't her! She can't hit th' broadside a barn and you're still losin to her! Just give up!" Now both of them had stopped to stare, with visible rage. "Yeah! Both of ya can't compare ta me! So, jus.. give up!" With that he pulled down an eyelid at both of them.

Of course, neither of them understood why Ranma did what she did, but she understood it well. They were both pretty well matched powers-wise, even if that one girl preferred more shoving it into her strikes like Ranma did, and Jadeite was too incensed to think of using his own powers properly. However the secret of the battle was momentum and redirection. Keep the momentum and redirect your enemy's to where you want it to go. Taking as deep a breath as she could with what felt like a fractured rib, she closed her eyes for a blissful second, as if convinced they posed absolutely no threat to her. Opening them, she smirked. "Or have ya both given up ta me already?"

The conclusion was fairly obvious. Jadeite screamed in rage and fired off a blast of black lightning-crackling ki-magic-whatever in a sheer wave. Beside it the new senshi shouted something sounding like "DIE RANMA!" and whipping her spade about threw an impressive blast of dark green ki off the tip towards her as well. The two waves met halfway and wrapped about each other, turning into a crackling sparking wave of pure angry hatred, utterly unstoppable. Exactly what she wanted.

"Dragon Strike Revised: Moon's Reflection!" and with that pulled the ki from the area and dumped her own soul of ice chilled ki, folding it about. The result was something like her own ki-pocket but twisted backwards. The shot hit it square on, a bit spilling out and splashing about her body and almost driving her to her knees again, but the rest surged in a sudden cyclone then reflected _**back**_ , a screaming line of brightly charged lightning-filled darkness. It hit, detonating, spade-girl thrown off into the air and away, and Jadeite thrown into a new crater formed from the explosion. Ranma grinned even as she did collapse to her knees from the sheer exertion, world wobbling and going blurry again as she struggled for consciousness. There was a scrabbling noise from the new crater however and a battered bleeding and bruised Jadeite emerged. He looked far worse, wavering and twitching and swaying like he was ready to faint any second, his uniform shredded into a few scraps to give him modesty and little more. Despite all that he was upright, albeit barely.

"You think you've won?" he shouted, a hacking cough escaping along with a mouthful of coughed-up blood. "It doesn't matter, I win either way. Either you all die, and I return victorious, or you win, and I die and some other general gets to deal with all of you and disappointing Queen Beryl. You know, I don't think she knows what you are. So, let's finish our battle, shall we? More back and forth and at the end someone dies. What's another youma, right?"

Ranma winced and took a reflexive step back. "You... it's not..." she stammered.

"Oh, it's not? They're alive, they think and feel, then die by our orders or your hands. But they were never **human** were they? Just monsters to fight. And you know you're too weak right now to fight to that point, to not kill me. Maybe at full strength, but you're in no condition. You'd have to kill. And I win."

Ranma grimaced. She'd been trading 'battle' counts before with the other Sailor Moon, and here she was trying to kill someone leading them. He was right too, she knew she'd have to hold back too much and something would happen and her control would slip and she'd kill him, and he'd just be another youma she'd faced. Of course, there was always one other thing she was good at that surprised her opponents: doing the unexpected. "Hey! Mercury!"

Jadeite suddenly paled. "You wouldn't."

The girl looked up from the twisted pile of metal, panting hard but less from exertion than otherwise. Ranma blushed and tried not to stare at the look she received, instead smirking and directing a thumb at Jadeite. "See Jadeite here? He's responsible for those things you fought, and he's the one who's been sending the youma."

Jadeite paled further, and tried to scramble back, but was plowed over by a fist driven by a screaming blue-haired blur. Knocked onto his back Mercury continued to smash into him with fists and boots and at one point headbutting him when he tried to block a strike. Ranma winced as she straddled him, smashing his ribs with punch after punch, getting groans of pain. "Help! Sailor Moon! Don't leave me with her!" he cried.

Ranma winced and then moved away to get up the others. It didn't take long to rouse either, supporting Mars upright then going to get Usagi. She woke at the first touch, looking up. "Aaah Beryl!" she cried, reaching up to her head before realizing she'd de-transformed and lacked a tiara, then brain finally catching up. "What? Who are- oh, you're Ranma. I didn't recognize you without the wig and mask. You looked like, um, nevermind. So, uh, did we win?"

Ranma shrugged. "We didn't lose," she replied. "Hopefully it's enough. Now let's go and, um..." She trailed off, looking towards Jadeite where Sailor Mercury was apparently... "Oh. Uhm."

Sailor Mars blushed a fierce red, and looked away. "At least she still has her outfit on."

"Most of it," added an equally red Usagi. "Well, some of it. I knew she got a bit, um, worked up with fighting, but I didn't, uh..."

Ranma blushed and looked away as well. While she wasn't exactly oblivious to the idea of people being amorous, a number of suitors fighting over her had left her rather biased against the very idea, and ended up associating romantic desire with lots of pain. Seeing the senshi like that with her supposed enemy made her skin crawl and she felt like hiding from the inevitable beating that didn't seem forthcoming. It left her entirely off-balance. "So, uh. I guess we're done, and uh, stuff. Go home'n recover, I guess. What, uh, what 'bout them?" and she gestured at the pair she couldn't quite bring herself to look at, Mercury still straddling him and striking with her nails, the cries sounding less and less like pain each minute.

Sailor Mars was still flushed a bright red, refusing to look that direction as well. "Leave them to their, uh, fight?"

Usagi shook her head. "She'll be angry if we just left her." Knowing what had happened when the senshi of ice became angry, Ranma and Usagi paled, while Mars looked, well, hopeful. Just for a bit before seeing the other two and feigning horror. Even with how much time she'd been spending as one she'd never understand girls.

* * *

Mercury had eventually ended up cuddling with Jadeite, and after some talking she conceded he needed to hide before Beryl realized he'd turned traitor. Jadeite himself persuaded her that he'd actually set up things so he would be thought of as dead, but he did need to lay low for a while, with another promise that he'd get in contact with his reincarnated 'little ice cream sundae' soon, once he was safe. For the moment though she was content, all of the memories of their time together in a past life awoken. Once the other three senshi came she gave a dopey smile and curled up further in her arms, before her brain woke up once more and she flushed bright red across her entire body, sitting upright and trying to pull her vest back on. "Nothing happened!" she cried. "I was transformed the whole time!"

"Nothing happened! She was transformed the whole time!" Jadeite cried along with her, then both glanced at each other and noticed Mercury was still straddling Jadeite, who was clothed in nothing more than a few tattered shreds of fabric. They both pushed each other away, looking thoroughly embarrassed, before Jadeite teleported away without another word.

The awkward silence was broken by Sailor Mars's incredulous " _You_ and _**Jadeite?!**_ "

* * *

Ranma did her best to slip back home quietly. She'd found out at some point that her ki pocket and her new ki technique did not mix, and her clothing was a shredded mass, and whatever letter Nabiki had slipped her (that she was waiting for the right time to read, she hadn't forgotten about it at all, honest) was little more than scorched confetti. So here she was trying to sneak in wearing her uniform (of which she needed to replace the wig and mask, _again_ ) in the middle of the night. She was almost home free, quietly closing the front door, when she heard a quiet 'ahem' from beside her. Freezing up, she turned to look at Nabiki wearing her pyjamas and looking rather annoyed. "Um, hi?" Nabiki continued to glare. "What? It's, uh..." and Ranma glanced down at herself. "This? It's, uh.. um..." She trailed off then sighed, before taking a firm stance. "Ya know, you can't sell this news. At all."

Nabiki gave a shark-like smirk in response. "Ah, so what are you promising to make it worth my while?"

Ranma shook her head, hands faintly glowing blue and starting to cast dark shadows about the area. "No. Look, 'Biki, 'm tired, got beat up, barely won, saved th' city. Just wanna go sleep'n recover. And you..." She sighed and glanced at her hands before the glow stopped. "Look, you go tell em all I'm Sailor Moon, right? You sell it as 'hot info' like ya always do. Then the fiance brigade comes, attacks. You take bets, make yen." Nabiki nodded with a wider smirk. "Then," Ranma continued, "Dark Kingdom jerks find out. Maybe Ryoga tells em, maybe Mousse. Maybe you sell it to'm. Then they decide to get Sailor Moon out'f th' way, so they c'n, yaknow, take over the world. Or somethin. Dunno. So they come. Level the dojo. Kill pops, Mr. Tendo. Kidnap you'n Akane 'n Kasumi. I go ta save you all. Akane's been kidnapped, and she c'n fight. Not well, but can. Ya try to bribe, they don't need money. And Kasumi can't do either. Then ta get me to break, they kill ya. All of ya, one by one. Yer all gonna die if they win, so why wait?"

Ranma leant against the wall as another dizzy wave hit. She needed to be in bed to recover, at least she wasn't bleeding anymore and she didn't have that concussion. Nabiki just stood there, staring, mouth slightly open, and Ranma used the time to pull herself together. It wasn't long before the mercenary mind rebooted, and her eyes focused. "True, I can't sell this. The biggest find ever, and no one can know, for all of our safety. I know when to drop out when the stakes are too high." She jabbed at Ranma with a finger (getting a wince and hiss of pain). "However, _you_... are going to help make up for the loss. After all, it's not every day you find you have a Sailor Senshi under your roof, and it's going to make me rich."

Ranma gulped.

In the end it hadn't been so bad. She'd promised to pose for a few pictures in full outfit (thankfully including mask and wig), and had promised to get autographs of the other four senshi, as well as with luck a full group photo. She even had to promise to see if she could get one of that tux guy's autographs, though knowing him all she had to do was wait somewhere and he'd show up to throw it at her to gain her favour. It turned out Nabiki was a bit of a fan, and had quickly overcome her worry to learn everything she could about the senshi from the source (except their civilian names, of course, she wasn't stupid). Nabiki had been surprised by the news about a new senshi who'd arrived and left almost as suddenly, plus that of Jadeite's side-switch and betrayal of his former queen, promising not to share either of those, as it would threaten not just him but everyone involved (and thus tangentially herself). At least Ranma managed to keep secret about the whole Sailor Mercury/Jadeite relationship. She didn't want to think of that quite yet, particularly when she wasn't even sure what she thought of him herself.

It was even later still after negotiations that Ranma dragged herself up the stairs towards her room. Hand on the door to open there was the quiet clearing of a throat behind her. She spun (taking a moment to wobble from fatigue and pain after such a quick motion) and looked at Akane who stood at the door to her own room. Ranma looked over then down, and realized three things in succession: she was still in full uniform without mask or wig, she was too injured to fight off Akane if the girl _really_ wanted to hurt her, and she'd completely forgotten an apology gift. Make that four things, Akane had her arms crossed in annoyance and was glaring.

Crap. "Hi." Akane wasn't amused by the greeting, and just held her glare. Ranma's brain half-woke up from its torpor and did a quick tactical analysis: running was out, she was too injured to get away in time. Denial was no good, she was in full costume and Akane wasn't stupid, and it would probably be on the news she'd been at the airport. Attacking an angry Akane was suicidal and if she did finally properly fight the girl it'd cause a rift in their relationship that couldn't be repaired. Denial would be the same as attacking, at this point. So that left two things, bluffing and misdirecting. As she was about to open her mouth she paused as another option came to mind: blunt honesty. The main trick was to throw opponents off balance so they were weak, so why not try the completely unexpected?

"Hi 'Kane. Um, I need ta sleep, bad, but guess I'n talk ta ya."

Akane still refused to talk, arms crossed and looking Ranma over head to toe and back again. Ranma got the hint and scratched the back of her head.

"'s gonna be like 'Biki again, ain't it?" she mumbled to herself before taking a breath.

"I'm Sailor Moon."

That was met with silence, and an expression of disbelief.

"Look, ya can't tell anyone, ok? _Anyone_. Don't care who'r what. 'swhy'm in disguise all the time, 'n why I'm a guy half've it. Th' guys I'm fightin' won't care bout honour, an' stuff like that. They'll kidnap ya. Then kill ya." Akane leaned back, shivering a bit from the flat serious expression on Ranma's face. "They'll kill ya, 'n th' whole family here. Amazons'n Ucchan too. Maybe th' Kunos fer measure." She took a moment to consider that one before shaking her head. No! **Bad Ranma!** You can't sacrifice people to the Dark Kingdom no matter how much they deserve it! "An' I can't let you be killed just cause I'm a dumb idiot who can't face the truth'n apologize when she's hurt a friend like I did. 'm sorry. I'm jus a big dumb tomboy jock some times. I'm sorry I said all that to ya."

Akane stared again, mind seized up. He called her a friend! But he- what? "But... Sailor Moon is.. wait.. Wha?" Her brain froze again, and this time she thought she smelled smoke. At least she'd kept her voice down to avoid waking up the household. Even frozen in complete overload her brain started making sudden connections. The clothes in his wardrobe. The sneaking out late hours and staying out later. The whole thing with Ryoga and potions. The thing before with Ryoga and the koi rod. The avoidance and apparent disinterest in all the fiances. "You're _gay?!_ " she hissed.

"Wha? No! I... um..." Ranma scratched the back of her head. "I... dunno, ta be honest. I kinda like some guys's much's next girl, but... maybe not so much? Girls seem better, 'ticly when'm out as a guy. Ya know? Know ya'd see it all 'perverted' n junk but'm not even sure what I **am** anymore." She gave an embarrassed blush and hid her head. "Look, I **_really_ ** don't wanna talk 'bout this. I need ta sleep fierce, ki's all low'n I think I fractured my ribs'n skull, need ta heal. Plus'm still kinda sick. C'n barely focus on stuff. Let's talk tomorrow, k? When'm rested. Need my sleep fore pops wakes me for his daily beatin'." She turned and slid open the door, before turning back to whisper once more to Akane. "Tomorrow, k? An'm sorry fr what I said Akane."

Akane continued to just stand there in the hall, brain trying to work things out. Ranma called her a friend! Ranma's Sailor Moon? Ranma wanted to protect her. Ranma apologized. Ranma's- wait. Her brain had skipped over a few of the words in the conversation out of habit, but something about the context seemed off... _tomboy jock_?

"What the hell?" she whispered to herself, standing out in the hall and brain locked up, Kasumi finding her in exactly the same position the next morning (and just sweeping around her as if she was furniture, figuring her little sister was trying something new and always supportive of her sisters' hobbies).

* * *

Later that night, a Ryoga Hibiki let himself into a quiet mostly-abandoned home, groaning softly. "I'm home... hey Checkers." Crouching to pet the dog, he looked about. "No one else home, girl?" he asked, getting a bark and shake of the head in reply. "No surprise there. Well, I'm going to bed, I'll see you tomorrow." With that he wandered down the hall and took the door on the left into his bedroom, the dog left behind staring with a completely bewildered whine.

* * *

Elsewhere, Mamoru Chiba was woken up by a sudden light from his kitchen. Considering he was the only one who lived in his apartment, he was awake in a heartbeat holding a baseball bat for security. Turning the corner, he saw a mostly-naked and somehow oddly familiar man in tattered remains of an outfit, eating directly from a tin of peaches. "Oh, hey Endymion. I've quit my job, so I kind of needed a place to crash for a few days, maybe a week or two. You don't mind, do you?" and he offered the rest of the tin.

* * *

Queen Beryl sat back in her throne, looking down at the dark crystal ball. "So, no more Jadeite." She turned back to look at the three remaining generals standing at attention. "Eenie meenie minie.. Nephrite. You're up next."

Nephrite swallowed heavily as the other two backed away from him as if he was contagious. "I, uh, I live to serve my queen. I will defeat the sailor senshi for you."

She gave a dismissive wave. "I'm sure. All of you, go." As they teleported out, she sighed and turned back to her crystal, giving it a whack with a hand before it flickered to show what looked like some sappy romance show. "Ah good, just in time for my soaps."

* * *

A small figure double-checked a map in the illumination of the streetlight, glancing up at the sign in front of them. "Tendo dojo. Mortal combat at rear," came a muttered summary. "Ranma Saotome, finally I will see you." But that would wait, as the figure crept away back into the night.


	5. Out of Time

A/N: I imagine this chapter is going to get some flak for a given character. By this point we've already snapped at least three timelines off the rails (Sailor Moon with Jadeite forced to do the airport attack far earlier and having started a few years later, Ranma with a gender identity crisis and senshi business, and real life with the sudden open awareness of the senshi and destruction of part of an airport). You didn't expect certain events in the far future to just happen as they did before, did you? Suffice to say a certain someone is not quite an OC, but your answers might have to wait a bit.

A/N2: Due to popular demand, I've put a quick recap at the top of the events and assumptions set out in the 4 chapters (not ALL of them, but some important ones).

* * *

 ** _Recap (AKA Help! I feel like Ryoga I'm so lost!)_**

Ranma suffered a head thump coupled with a few splashes, forcing amnesia as to his female form, very much like the episode where the same thing happens (which had happened before already). Kasumi was reading one of her sister's Senshi Beat magazines (at this point a quick and dirty photocopy magazine, more a pamphlet for people keeping watch), and when Ranma came to he imprinted on the article on Sailor Moon, and is now convinced that his female form is Sailor Moon. Naturally this caused no end of mental confusion, coming to the eventual conclusion that Ranma must be female to be Sailor Moon, and must have the male curse (since if she's female, she must be one who turns into a guy with hot water, changing back with cold) to be a cover for her secret identity. It's a two-part cover, anyone who thinks of her as being a guy would never think of her female form ever being the beautiful soldier of justice Sailor Moon, after all! A second blow to the head after she pretended to have forgotten the whole event, to try and throw any lingering suspicion off of everything (and further reasoning as to why hasn't been revealed yet).

Ranma doesn't appear to have a planetary tap like the senshi, and she in fact doesn't transform so much as put on a Sailor Moon costume. So far it's worked fine against Youma, as they're quite vulnerable to her ki-blasts (in much the same way you might drink water, but a water-drill would still slice through you). At least three other senshi are active (and possibly recovered a portion of Silver Millenium era memories): Sailor Moon (the real one), Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars. An important note is that the three senshi are about sixteen/seventeen right now, and didn't become active Sailor Senshi until a few years after they did in the manga/anime. This has had some ramifications on their personalities: Usagi has matured somewhat and has awakened, but is having issues with all the memories of a past life and it seems she's not be the happy-go-lucky slacker ditz she was before. Ami is far more wound up, from years of mounting frustration over the academic drive she's put herself through, and with no friends to act as a safety valve and remind her to relax she's more than a little on the edge of a breakdown. Sailor Mars seems much the same, but may have resolved some of her anger issues (but may well have others, that remains to be seen)

Jadeite's plans were disrupted a lot more thoroughly, and more than that one of his plans moved to Nerima district (and was utterly destroyed by Ranma-Moon), costing more energy to set up and leaving him with less to show from his work. This meant that coupled with the fact that there's now FOUR senshi to deal with and Queen Beryl's patience at an end he had to ramp up his plans ahead of schedule. During his attempt at the shrine (with the bus-kidnapping as well) Sailor Mars awakened and with Ranma-Moon defeated Jadeite once, driving him off (while Moon and Mercury saved the buses as well).

Meanwhile Ryoga ended up in the place-out-of-space/time by the Space-Time Door (AKA the Gates of Time), and bumped into Sailor Pluto (and startled a certain young girl who was nearby, sending her off into the mists of time). She revealed herself to be his ancestor, and revealed his directional curse is because he's attuned to the wrong planet entirely, offering a contract that had been in the family for ages past, which would cure the directional curse but with costs unknown.

Ranma and Rei went training, with Ranma trying (and eventually succeeding) in learning how to teleport like Jadeite (and in the process learning how to instantly escape any bonds, and Rei learning how to throw objects of multiple tons distances with precision). Upon making their way back, they came across Usagi and Ami at the shrine, and a certain youma spying on them. Mercury _snapped_ , and proceeded to break the youma with her bare hands in turn. Violently. Usagi and Ranma met and compared notes, made plans to meet up again later. The later report came that there were four senshi, and even the supposed weakest one was a monster of a youma-killer. This meant that Jadeite had to gamble everything in a win-or-lose situation, and challenged the Senshi to a battle at the airport.

The battle at the airport came, Ranma completely sick and barely able to function but pressing on by willpower alone. The four senshi met and travelled to meet Jadeite, and in the process got to each show off tricks they'd learned. Still, Jadeite was powerful and by the end was looking grim with Sailor Moon down, Mars and Mercury fighting giant golem creatures, and Ranma confined while Jadeite (wounded but not stopped) ready to crush them finally. However a mysterious new senshi (in black skirt, yellow bow, and a certain yellow bandanna) distracted Jadeite. While the she was fighting Ranma was able to escape and recover, then proceeded to use a new trick on the fly to try and defeat Jadeite. It still wasn't enough, so Ranma sicced the berserking Sailor Mercury on Jadeite instead.

By the time Ranma-Moon had helped awaken Mars and the depowered Usagi, Sailor Mercury and Jadeite had... 'made up', Mercury letting off some of her pent-up frustration (in more ways than one). Jadeite apparently decided to give up on Beryl, and proceeded to go and crash at his old friend Endymion's place. Beryl sent Nephrite up to face the senshi in turn.

However, upon returning home Ranma in full Sailor Moon garb (minus the mask to hide her face) was confronted by Nabiki, who possibly had already known the whole time. After convincing her that it was in her self-interest not to reveal Moon's identity (as the Dark Kingdom would then target the Tendos, putting Nabiki herself and the others of her family all in mortal danger) she agreed, for a 'small' compensation. Worse, Akane had heard and cornered Ranma, who decided instead of the usual denial tactics (that were never believed anyways) to lay her cards on the table and confess to her secret identity. This coupled with the realization Ranma was now thinking of herself as female caused a mental bluescreen on poor Akane.

There's major questions still left unanswered, but for now... enjoy!

* * *

The city of Tokyo woke to an overcast day. Woke for the parts that weren't up all night at least, such as police and disaster crews still busy at the airport. Most people noticed the city hadn't burned down, and were either waiting for the news on what the strange announcement was two nights ago, or like a smaller group giving silent thanks to the Sailor Senshi for stopping whatever madman that was.

For an even smaller group, in this case one of said senshi herself (well, himself currently) he didn't have much time to admire a job well done. He was instead flying through an open window. "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna maim that panda until he can't move", Ranma groused to himself as he flew, already angling himself to land lightly on one of the stones about the koi pond before just holding a stance and waiting for his sparring partner parent to join him. It wasn't long before the larger man leapt through the window to land on the ground beside, also in his own deeper stance.

"Not bad boy, but let's see how you deal with... THIS!" and launched an attack. Anyone who didn't know Genma would be surprised the man could move that fast, given his apparent bulk, but that was eclipsed by Ranma himself who seemed to merely flow about the attacks as if the limbs were sitting still, getting up close and delivering a series of strikes to the man, which were just as quickly blocked or dodged in turn. Ranma didn't reply, stifling a yawn with one hand while launching a rapid flurry of punches with the other, then twisting into a dodge and leaping up over an attempted leg sweep.

"Couldn't give me ten more minutes, huh pops? Least'm a bit more rested." He yawned again, and leapt over to land behind the large man, delivering a two-handed smash to the head and a solid kick to his back, sending him flying towards the pond apparently out cold. He turned to leave and heard a splash, nodding to himself in satisfaction- before his danger sense pinged and he spun to see the still-human Genma driving at him with a strike ready. Ranma berated himself, he must be exhausted if he'd fallen for such a simple trick as faking unconsciousness and a thrown rock, but it didn't mean that he was out of tricks he wanted to try. With that proceeded to twist his ki-pocket and fold it through itself, adapting the ki-transit move he knew on the fly, and succeeding right as the man met him. Fist almost met chest, but instead seemed to compress and vanish to infinity before it met, the surprised older martial artist only having a moment to glance at his son before vanishing into nowhere. He then reappeared out of nowhere just as quickly to go flying in an arc and land in the pond with a splash. Ranma grinned in triumph and promptly passed out from the exhaustion that move left on his already-low reserves.

Everyone had just gathered to eat breakfast when the wet panda dragged the unconscious but still-male Ranma in. That was a surprise, Nabiki thought, usually if Ranma had lost it involved ending up dunked. It probably meant something important had happened. Akane herself glanced over, and felt sudden relief at the still-male pigtailed fiancée. She didn't comment however, too busy lost in her own thoughts over what had happened last night and trying not to fall asleep at the table. Kasumi finished up the quick miso and rice, humming cheerfully; she was glad Ranma and his father got along so well. Her happy smile dipped slightly at the way Genma just dumped Ranma in a heap at the table then went for the boiling kettle. Still, she knew he loved his son. He just had... less public ways of showing it.

* * *

Ranma eventually came to with the television playing in the background. "..and with the reports of damage still coming in, it appears the airport will be closed until further notice, severely hampering all local and international flights. While investigators say it is too early to estimate damages, police have warned the public to avoid these 'sailor senshi' for their own safety. In the weather-" and the television was shut off as Kasumi put down a portion of miso and rice. "Did you have a good rest Ranma? Your father ate your breakfast, but I made sure to save you an extra portion. I suspect you're hungry after everything." She gave a wink, then went to clean up. Ranma just groaned and ate, giving Kasumi a sidewards glance. Did she know too? Did everyone know? Everyone had been convinced he was 100% a guy since guys wouldn't be caught dead dressed up as Sailor Moon did, and he'd gone to lengths to keep it that way. Apparently most of the household somehow knew, although at least it seemed Mr. Tendo and pops didn't know yet as they weren't trying to get him 'fixed' as they always did.

The doorbell rang and Kasumi went to the door as Ranma finished up, listening into the conversation. "Hello, is Ranma Saotome in?" came the voice of what sounded like a young girl. Oh damn, probably another someone either to challenge him or marry him, thanks to the stupid panda. He sighed and set the dishes aside out of the way, waiting for the news. The girl was young, perhaps six years old with cotton-candy pink hair pulled up into a sort of a tall puffball before dropping down her back in a braided ponytail. Gazes met, Ranma looking into a vibrant pair of blue eyes that looked strikingly familiar, before the girl gave a shriek. " _Mama!_ "

" _ **WHAT?!**_ " came the reply shout from the sudden crowd in the room. Ranma for his part didn't answer; he was on his back fainted dead away.

Ryoga crouched on the fence of the Tendo compound, trying to steel his nerves. All he had to do was march in, find Akane, and tell her his feelings. Ranma too, then maybe smash Ranma up a bit for practice. Maybe he would do the hitting first, Ranma was better at staying still to listen during a battle, ironically.

It was amazing how having a sense of direction felt, he thought; he could be anywhere now and know precisely where he was and how to get where he wanted, and could do it almost instantly. It turns out the walk between his house and the Tendo one was only a few kilometres, mere minutes if he kept a decent pace. He'd always had the impression it was halfway across Japan, and he had memories of wandering through foreign locales trying to find it. On the plus side Akane always liked the souvenirs he picked up. Perhaps he should take another visit to Paris some time, now that he knew where it was. There was an ocean and a continent in the way, but he'd managed it in a week before so it probably wasn't as far as he thought it was. And now he was stalling.

Steeling himself again he moved to finally stop sitting on the fence, and just as he leapt a shout of " _Mama!_ " and a following chorus of " _ **WHAT?!**_ " came from the house, getting a surprised yelp and a splash followed by a pig squeal.

Rei double-checked the address, and glanced up at the large house before her. She'd been here once, of course, but that was at night and she'd taken a different route over the rooftops that time. It was the right place however, although the shouting from inside was making her wary. Maybe this was a bad time, but however Ranma did need to hear what she'd found in the fire reading. Before she could move up to knock someone else came up and stopped, looking her over to evaluate. She in turn looked the newcomer over: it looked like a cute boy at first glance, a bit bishonen, but the long hair and face was enough to make her look 'him' over and notice the subtle cues of womanhood. That was almost enough to make her miss the giant spatula strapped to her back. Rei did a double-take; yes, it was a spatula the size of a pole-arm.

"Let me guess, here to see Ran-chan?"

"Um, yeah," Rei replied. "Are you a friend of hers?"

"Her? We talking about the same guy, sugar?" she replied with a bemused expression.

"Maybe a few inches over five feet, red hair in pigtail, figure to put most girls to shame, able to lift a bus over her head? Has a water-curse to turn into a boy sometimes?" Rei described. She was starting to get the feeling of being in some sort of twilight zone, and was more than a bit weirded out.

"And too too cute butt!" added another voice. The newcomer was obviously female, wearing a revealing outfit like that. She looked like some sort of manga or anime character, particularly with that purple hair. She tried to hide her obvious stare, glancing back at the door. "Who newcomer? She with spatula-girl? Will beat two at once if try!" the purple-haired girl said, dropping into a fighting stance. Rei backed up a bit, ready to run and transform if she needed to. Thankfully the 'spatula-girl' put a hand out. "Hang on. What do you mean her?"

Rei blinked. "What? Ranma's a girl! Sure I wouldn't have believed the whole turns into a guy thing if I hadn't seen her curse first-hand, and sure she's cute in both forms, and tends to act like a guy, but... she was born a girl and thinks she's one so she is, right?"

Spatula-girl and Purple-girl glanced at each other. "Oh, she's into girls?" remarked the spatula-wielder gesturing to Rei. The other just shrugged. "Is nothing wrong with that. Lots of fighters at village prefer each other's company. Girls much better at some things than stupid man," and she wiggled her fingers with a suggestive grin, getting a fierce blush from the other two before laughing. "You too too easy to tease! Shampoo prefer _real_ man, like Ranma!"

Rei groaned. "I don't- I'm not- I just- I'm a **friend!** " She was starting to get irritated at the insinuations, but kept it at check with the sense of danger she was getting from both of them, and the edge of that spatula looked more like a sword-blade. "Nothing more, all right? She helped me with something and I invited her over to my house-" She gulped as the pair affixed her with equally frosty glares. "-to chat! And hang out! And swap manga! Look, I'm not into her that way! Even if I was I don't think she'd even notice-"

Rei was stopped by a shout from the house of " _Mama!_ " and before she could ask she was dragged along by the two girls as they proceeded to bash their way through the front door (and wall) get in.

Ami Mizuno double-checked the handheld Mercury Computer, glancing up at the back door before her. Tendo Dojo, All challengers in Violent Mortal Combat please ring bell. Deliveries at front. She triple-checked, just to make sure she really was reading what she saw, before just putting the device away and turning to her companion. "This is the place. Now that we know, I really should get to my studying-" and she started to leave, only to find a surprisingly-strong hand clamped about her arm.

"Amiiiii... I can't do this alone! You know how I get when meeting new people alone and she's so awesome and she's also a senshi and we really should meet her so we can plan practice since she could teach us how to do awesome things like that and don't you want to know how to throw magic about and didn't you see how she all but took out Jadeite twice!" She paused to take a breath. "Although I think you're more interested in how Jadeite needed to be nursed back to health by his new personal physician and you were awesome but scary when you fought him so I want to learn to fight like her instead of you no offence but I wouldn't be able to do that unless it did get me a guy you know like it did you... so _please?_ " Taking another deep breath the blonde turned a pair of blue eyes upon her friend in an obvious puppy-dog expression, even managing a hint of unshed tears.

Ami frowned slightly, resolute in her determination to go back to her studying and ignore all of this. She was a senshi, but she didn't volunteer for it and she still had to keep her grades up so she could get into a good cram school for the entrance exams. All she had to do was look Usagi in the eyes, tell her no, and then go home. She turned, looked Usagi directly in those quivering eyes, and replied, "Fine." It was a few moments before she realized what she'd said and she started berating her traitor brain. Stupid weakness to people! This was why she never bothered with friends, she caved too easily to their demands! With this day now a wash she made a promise to herself to get in more studying later tonight, perhaps invite Jadeite over and see his knowledge of calculus methods, perhaps they could do some integration- No! Bad hormones!

Usagi watched the shifting expressions on her friend's face followed by a fierce blush and a shake of her head, hiding her own smirk. Ami was a bit easy to manipulate, but it was for her own good to get out and socialize before she went completely crazy. If people were meant to study all the time they would have been born with books in their hands! Turning back she raised her hand to ring the bell, only to be stopped by a shout of " _Mama!_ " from inside, and before she even thought about it she'd already shoved open the door and dragged Ami inside.

* * *

Ranma awoke once more to the shouting mob arguing back and forth. It looked like pops and Mr. Tendo were busy shouting at him, Ucchan and Shampoo were also shouting and pointing fingers back and forth, Akane was standing to the side staring blankly into space, and for some reason Rei, Usagi, and Ami were also there watching the arguments in confusion. Trying to sit up he found there was a weight atop him, and a glance revealed a small girl with a pink pigtail sitting atop his chest and watching the goings on like it was a television drama. She offered him some of the popcorn she was munching on, and taking a confused handful he glanced around to see Kasumi making more popcorn as a snack for everyone. She was humming rather loudly to herself, as if trying to drown out the shouting of everyone else. Finally picking the girl up and setting her down beside Nabiki (who reached over to take a handful of popcorn as well to munch as she played spectator) he sat up to try to figure out just what the hell was going on.

The movement was enough to get the attention of the two parents. "BOY! How dare you have a daughter already!" came one, followed by "How dare you make my daughter a teenage mother!" Soun swelled up his demon-head, leaning forward (and the three senshi edging towards the door to dash out to transform). "YOU MARRY MY LITTLE GIRL RIGHT NOW SO YOUR CHILD HAS PARENTS!" he shouted, only for the technique to deflate from a punch from said Akane. "Dad! She's not my daughter!" After a momentary pause of consideration he countered with a quieter "Are you sure?" which was met with a cold glare. Wincing he turned back to Ranma. "HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ON MY LITTLE GIRL WITH ANOTHER WOMAN?!"

Ukyo and Shampoo whirled to face each other again, pointing fingers. "How dare you steal Ran-chan for yourself like that?!" "How dare spatula-girl take advantage of my airen?!" Combat spatula and chui came out and the two girls dropped into a battle stance before simultaneously leaping forward to strike. Trading blows they began a heated battle, the two popcorn-eaters just swiveling heads back and forth like a tennis match, only looking up to thank Kasumi as she refilled their bowl. Genma was screaming something incoherent about being a grandfather before his plans were ready, and Soun was already turning to face the three extra girls who were backing up against the wall. "Which of you took advantage of my future son-in-law?! Was it YOU?" and he jabbed a finger at Usagi who let out a shriek and tripped to land backwards on her rear, the other two dropping into stances of their own and palming their transformation wands.

Ranma had to do something to defuse the situation before it became far worse; as soon as Ukyo or Shampoo won their fight the winner would attack Akane then the three senshi, the girls would power up and attack back, and then next thing everyone knew there wouldn't be a house any longer. Glancing about frantically he spied the perfect distraction. "Porkbutt! Look, 'm sorry fer this and I'll make it up ta ya later somehow, but.." then grabbing the damp wide-eyed piglet he pitched him like a squealing football to bounce off Soun's head (knocking the man out) and landing on Shampoo's chest. Clinging for dear life the pig looked up at her shocked face, over at Ukyo's equally shocked expression, then down at the barely-covered flesh. Briefly giving a little experimental squeeze with his hooves he passed out with a fountain of blood from his nose. That broke the fight as Shampoo shouted what sounded like a swear in Chinese and shoved the unconscious piglet to the floor, Ukyo swung back her battle spatula in preparation to make pork chops, and Akane leapt in to protect her P-Chan.

"SHUT UP!" Ranma roared, getting instant silence as everyone spun to stare. Taking a breath he let it out in a slow whistle. "Look, she's not my daughter! I'm _sixteen!_ " "Seventeen," corrected Nabiki.

"I'm _seventeen!_ " resumed Ranma. "She's, six or somethin'. I did **not** have a kid at ten!" "Eleven," corrected Nabiki again, getting a brief glare from the boy, at which she snagged another handful of popcorn and gave a wave to continue. Ranma in turn groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sides, never even been with any girl in that way," he admitted.

Stares met that response, before the obvious connection was leapt upon, and completely and entirely sailed past. "HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ON MY LITTLE GIRL WITH A MAN?!" came a demon-head shout from Soun, right before he was distracted by the thump as Genma fainted, followed by a thump as everyone else face-faulted.

"Look!" Ranma shouted, trying to keep the situation from devolving into another fight. "She can't be my kid! 'Sides, 'm not really suited ta be a mother like this." There was a splash, and the new redhead spit out a bit of water before levelling Kasumi with a dry look. "Thanks," she muttered sarcastically, which got a smile back. Ranma sighed and looked back at the little girl who didn't seem phased at the aqua-sexuality, unlike Usagi and particularly Ami (who looked like she was ready to faint too). "Still, I don' even know'f I can have kids, not if water'll, well... 'sides, m'cycle's so uneven cause I keep flippin' sexes. Maybe once I get cured or locked or somethin' and marry I'll have a kid as dad or mom." That got a thump as Soun passed out as well.

The three potential fiancées looked over at Ranma. "But you're my Ranchan/fiancée/airen!" came three simultaneous protests. Ukyo stared down wide-eyed at the little girl who started it all, then up at Ranma. "But... you're a guy! We're going to be together, not like two girls but, and you promised me..." "Airen is being silly, right? Right? _Right?_ " Shampoo added, looking on the verge of panic. "But, you, you... you're my fiancée! You have to be a boy! I can't marry a girl!" Akane protested, face pale and looking as if she was going to faint, break into tears, or both.

Ranma groaned again and shook her head. "Look, 'm only seventeen! I'm still in high school fer'nother year'n somethin', I'm not _ready_ ta choose who ta marry, not you Akane, not Ucchan, Shampoo, or even Ryoga!" (which produced a shocked " _BWEEE?!_ "). "Not any of you 'r some other fiancée pops got me engaged to behind my back! Now I dunno who the girl is, but I don't wantcha bunch of psy- _people_ fighting over her!" With that she crouched down and picked the stunned girl up and swung her into a piggyback ride, heading out the door before everyone else recovered.

"What," commented a stunned Usagi. "The," added an equally stunned Ami. "Tea?" finished Kasumi, and as all the girls turned to stare she lifted the steaming teapot with a cheerful smile.

* * *

A diminutive old woman smoked a pipe and watched as a robed boy swept the floor with what appeared to be a floor lamp. Sparing a moment to hit him on the head with her staff she told him to put his glasses on, and doing so he looked at the held lamp then replaced it with a broom with no comment. Amazonian Elder Khu-lon went back to her pipe, shaking her head. Some days she felt the only reason he was about was because she couldn't run the cafe with just her great granddaughter. At this point she didn't even have that, as the foolish girl had found the Fated Slate and insisted she would write down her and son-in-law Ranma's names together and then they would be fated to be together. Cologne had then taken the time to explain how the board didn't work like that, and people had to write their own names down, and from there Shampoo had insisted she would trick Ranma into signing the slate before eventually giving up when she was told the Chalk of Truth was lost and needed to make the slate work. Instead she swore she would get her husband to take her on a date and left to see him. Once she was gone Cologne had taken out a piece of chalk and used the slate to list the afternoon specials, hanging it back up behind the counter.

Sure she did need to get her son-in-law to stop fighting and come back with them to China, but she knew he wasn't ready, not if he was to fight the foes she knew were in his future. Turning to the sidewalk outside she caught a glimpse of a pigtailed redhead with a small pink-haired girl riding on her shoulders. This was interesting, who was that with her son-in-law? The idea crossed her mind that it might be a cousin, and she repressed a shudder at the idea of that fat male Genma having siblings. She was fairly certain it wasn't a younger sister, so that meant it was either some other more distant relative or a girl son-in-law knew. Perhaps son-in-law was babysitting, that would give her good practice to be a proper amazonian husband. Telling Mousse to continue to clean up she briefly flipped the store sign to closed then hopped on her staff to follow.

Ranma finally dropped her passenger onto a park bench, sitting down beside her. The two stared at each other in silence for a few minutes, before Ranma sighed and broke first. "Ok, so, what's yer name, kid?"

The girl gave a hint of a smile. "Tsukiko. Chibi-Tsuki."

Ranma shook her head returning the half-smile. "Just Tsukiko? No family name?"

The smile vanished. "I can't tell you, I'm not allowed."

"Whaddya mean, 'not allowed'? What's wrong with tellin' me? Look, kid, 's'not some big mystery! Just say it! Or if ya can't just write it out! Ya can't be that embarrassed, mean pops is my pop and I still call m'self a Saotome!"

"I can't!" the smaller girl cried. "It would break things! Change everything! I'm not even supposed to be here, but there was an accident, and I'm all alone and Puuchan doesn't know I'm here and she'd be angry to find out, and everything and everyone's all weird and no one remembers me and, and..." With that she broke into tears, grabbing Ranma and crying into her shirt.

Ranma winced at the crying. "It's ok, it's ok, you don't have to tell me! Forget I asked!" When it didn't stop the tears she gingerly wrapped her arms about the girl, sighing in relief when it seemed to help and trying an awkward hug. "Ok, so, ya can't tell me. It would break things? Change things? Can ya least tell whatcha mean by that?"

Tsukiko sniffled. "No! I'm not supposed to! I wasn't even taught what I can and can't say but it's bad! Puuchan was going to but... but I do know there's something I was told about a 'Nanban mirror'. Whatever that means."

Ranma froze, and bit back a few choice swears. "Ok," she replied slowly, drawing it out as she quickly thought. "And since yer tellin' me I'm yer mom, we're talkin' you goin' _back_ in time, right?" The girl froze in turn, not looking up. Ranma gave a sigh. "And since ya said change things, means th' future can change. What happens'f I change things, and ya stop existing?" The girl began to quiver in fear, and Ranma winced again, hugging. "Not gonna do that! I jus' wanna know what ta watch for!"

"I don't know!" the girl wailed. "No one's told me, and I shouldn't have even let you know, and I'm not supposed to even be here yet, and I could change something! What would happen to me? I could vanish just because you know I exist! I just wanted my mama but now I just wanna go _home_ _!_ "

Ranma held the sobbing girl, pulling her into her lap and gently rocking. She always felt horrible when girls cried, and this one was apparently her daughter, or to-be-daughter, or something, so that made it even worse. "Shh. Look, I don't know if yer my daughter'r not yet, but'm not gonna let you just vanish, I swear on my honour as a martial artist. We'll find some way to getcha back home to yer moms, maybe the mirror or somethin'." That got a stop to the crying, and instead she sniffled and tried to dry her tears into Ranma's shirt. For her part Ranma just rocked the little girl before reaching down to help wipe off some tears. "That's better. Now c'mon, let's go cheer ya up. How's ice cream sound?"

From her hiding place in the bushes, Cologne mulled over what she'd heard, before heading back home. So, her son-in-law had a future daughter, one from an unknown mother. Clearly the solution was to find out how to make sure the girl's mother was Shampoo, and if not... _eliminate_ the problem.

* * *

Back at the Tendo home, a group of girls were gathered at the table, sipping tea and glancing at each other, Kasumi cleaning up while surreptitiously watching the discussion from the kitchen. The two men were still passed out cold, dragged to the deck by the shogi board (and Nabiki having stuffed half-full sake bottles in their robes to keep them busy after). Akane was finishing a heavily abridged story of what she knew of Ranma's life to the increasingly shocked secret-senshi. "And then she came back last night, barely standing and limping like she'd just lost a fight, and said she was S-" A kick from Nabiki and a glance made Akane shift gears. "Sssorry to have hurt my feelings, and she said she liked guys as much as the next girl but also liked girls as a guy, and wasn't sure what she was anymore... and now I'm even calling him a girl and I don't know what's wrong with him!" She blinked back tears and dropped her head down into her arms on the table.

The other girls looked at each other. "Airen thinks he's a girl?" Shampoo asked, glancing at Ukyo. "But he said he wasn't sure, and he still likes girls," the chef replied. The two looked at each other then grinned. "We have a chance!" they cried in unison. "Airen will be mine!" "Ranchan can still marry me!"

From the side Rei watched the two. "So Ranma's really a guy?" she muttered, glancing over. "She, uh, he lied to me? Why?"

"He didn't want you to end up another fiancée," Akane muttered barely lifting her head. "He said he has too many already." She dropped back down, too tired and confused to even try being angry at that comment. Rei just nodded, thinking that one over.

"Well, I don't care if she's a guy or a girl. She's a friend and I'm happy with that, even if she's really a confused boy or girl depending on the water."

Usagi nodded happily at that. "And she can turn into a guy and find out things about all the boys to later share gossip with you at the mall! It's like a boyfriend and girlfriend all in one!"

The girls save for Akane gave the blonde a Look. "You're not even the slightest bit troubled by that?" Ukyo asked, blinking a few times. Usagi just shrugged as she seemed to consider that for a few moments. "Nope!" she chirped, beaming at the four.

Ami sat back, shaking her head and the cup of tea in her hands quivering. "The extra mass, where does it go? She's literally inches shorter, it doesn't work, it's medically impossible! It's physically impossible! There should be a nuclear explosion every time she changes thanks to mass-energy equivalence! None of it should happen, and that's not to mention the assorted skeletal and hormonal and anatomy differences! She said she has a period, but she's also born a boy... aagh!" She clutched her head in agony.

"Is true!" Shampoo exclaimed. "And Shampoo turns into too too small cat! Is great shame. But whole area knows. And thousands of springs back home near village. Each different thing. Musk even put animal in water, make women, for animal-people babies." Everyone who hadn't already been involved in the battle with Herb looked vaguely ill at that idea.

Nabiki smirked, taking a sip of her tea. "Genma over there turns into a panda when splashed. A big panda. One boy turns into a duck that's light enough to fly and can still pull weapons out of nowhere, another turns into some giant tentacled ox-sasquatch-eel-bird-thing, and Ryoga-"

The pig sitting to the side froze, then started to slowly back away just in case. "Ryoga what?" asked Akane in confusion, looking up once again. Ukyo as if sensing an impending battle shot the piglet a meaningful look, then excused herself. "I have to go prepare for the dinner rush, the new girl is better with baking than okonomiyaki." With that she all but bolted out the door and away. Shampoo followed suit, a quick bow to Kasumi before giving some excuse about helping her great-grandmother then dashing out as well.

Nabiki looked at the small dust cloud from the two fiancées as she considered how to reply, Akane leaning in and P-Chan looking like he was ready to wet himself, then gave a shrug. "Ryoga knows a guy, someone very close to him, who changes into something else. A cute pig. You could even say they're like the same person." She gave the withdrawing P-Chan a meaningful look, as he readied to follow Ukyo and make a break for it.

"Oh, that's nice, maybe he could come by, so P-Chan isn't so lonely!" Nabiki just stared in disbelief before rolling her eyes and going back to her tea.

Ami groaned and banged her forehead on the table before dropping her head into her arms. "I hate magic," she muttered.

* * *

Setsuna Meioh, or more accurately Sailor Pluto, sat back and sipped her coffee. She'd had a wonderful evening, even with Jadeite threatening doom on the city. The doctor she'd been with had driven away a bit of that loneliness, even if just for that one night, the two of them brought together by the shared pain of being the last of their kind up against all of time and space. Taking another sip she let out a sigh, and hoped that maybe one day they'd both be able to atone for what they'd done.

Shaking her head to clear out the morose thoughts she picked up the morning (and being what it was also the evening's and yesterday's and tomorrow's) paper, taking a moment to glance over the headlines. There was an article about the large battle at the airport, so she flipped to that instead. Supposed terrorist, police evacuated the area, large battle. Four or five female figures and one male, flashes of light and- wait. Four or five?

A quick reread of the article confirmed that, four sailor-suited figures seen by police, two blondes dressed identically as well as a one with long black hair and one with short blue with a possible fifth unknown female although reports were conflicted. She flipped to the grainy picture someone managed to catch of what looked like a twin-pigtailed fuku-clad girl facing a uniformed man, another pigtailed girl to the side with a two others all similarly dressed. All of them were backlit by the burning wreckage of the control tower, making it impossible to make out any real details. Her fingers trembled but held on, brain on pause as she just stared blankly at the picture. She was the last surviving member of the Lunarian Empire, and thus she new all the former senshi. The only other blonde was Venus, but she was off overseas. She supposed it was possible someone had been reincarnated without looking very much like they did before, but why just the one? In fact, it was very unlikely, that particular style of hair was worn by the princess. Did someone else imitate it? If so, who was it?

She quickly flipped to the planetary horoscope section. The entries for Mercury, Mars, and the Moon all had something about one large battle done but more challenges coming. Venus had a comment about how they were successful but it was almost time to go home and catch up with family. Jupiter had a line about how trouble would find them soon but they would be helped by future friends and awaken to their destiny. Saturn was nothing noteworthy (thank goodness), and Uranus and Neptune had a brief line each how their time to show what they could do was coming so enjoy what they had. There was no entry about Pluto, which was the way she preferred it, although the new entry for Charon about a massive upheaval and figuring what they wanted while they had time was disconcerting. She was sure that was one of the extra senshi, and made a mental note to check in on things later, before checking the airport battle article once more.

According to rumours the duplicate-Moon was throwing energy blasts like the senshi, but it seemed she didn't have a planetary tap, at least not a Lunarian-style one, according to what she could feel. The only other blonde with that style of hair and fighting had been pre-ascendancy Queen Serenity, and while she was fairly sure it wasn't some suddenly-reincarnated Selene she knew she had to check. It looked like she had an investigation to do, so taking her staff she depowered and smoothed out her skirt before wandering into the darkness to find out who this newcomer was and arrange a meeting.

* * *

Nephrite groaned and resisted the urge to bash his head into the desk. He'd been pouring over Jadeite's notes to see what plans had been in motion, and so far was hitting a dead end. The man hadn't bothered to keep track of what had succeeded and what had failed, nor had he bothered to note what he'd already set in motion. There were further notes about some Nekaru youma, but he'd already checked and she'd disappeared shortly before Jadeite's defeat, so that was a no-go.

Another groan escaped his lips as he flipped through the papers, trying to get an idea what to try. He'd already checked his all-knowing oracle for a star-targeted potential victim but had simply gotten an "Ask Again Later" from the mystical orb. Instead he was relegated to trying one of Jadeite's plans. Something about a radio station, something about a fitness club, one about a talent contest, another about a cruise and yet another about a subway station. Those could all work, he was good at blending in. The radio station idea was a nice one, although the idea of cursed thank-you rewards to do a continual energy flow seemed too slow for the payoff he needed. Perhaps if he changed the plan slightly...

Nephrite scribbled a few notes down on the paper, and made a few calls on his (well, Jadeite's) brand-new cellphone, before turning to the other plans on the desk. The radio plan was started but it would take time and he needed energy _soon_ lest Queen Beryl take direct interest in him. Finally he arranged the other plans he'd shortlisted on a wall, then closing his eyes took his Arcane Short-Spear of Divination and threw it. A thump and he opened his eyes, pulling the dart out of the paper it had speared. That plan could work, and he could have things ready in a few days at most. Taking the paper he stalked to his own room to plan. There was work to do.

* * *

"And cut! That's a wrap, people!" A cheer rose from the assembled group as they finally broke off to go and celebrate the final shooting of the new picture. A teenage girl dressed up in a schoolgirl uniform groaned and went directly to her trailer, waving off well-wishes and congratulations from the crew and closing the door behind her to slump to the floor. A figure atop the bed chuckled. "Tired of show business?" they quipped before dodging a thrown pair of shoes and then stockings.

"Not in the mood. It's all I ever dreamed of, but... ugh. My throat's sore and my feet ache and I think I hit that last fall wrong, and all that for second billing in a cheap action movie. Doing my own stunts sucks, and so does Hollywood. At least I get to meet all the cute actors."

"Well, you did say you couldn't rest on your singing career, you chose this," came the reply, before a newspaper was tossed over at her. Catching it she stripped to her underwear and tossed back the costume she was wearing, slipping into her normal clothes. "Read it," ordered the muffled voice from under the pile of clothing.

The girl sighed again, muttering something about holding gift horses, before obliging. The headline was about a terrorist attack in a Tokyo airport, leading to an explosion which destroyed the main control tower and shut down the airport for the foreseeable future. It also involved quotes about 'costumed girls' and 'a martial arts light show' that was dismissed as nonsense by police who promised a full investigation. It concluded with a theorized connection to the 'hoax' prior involving a giant projection on the clouds and a threat to burn the city unless the 'Sailor Senshi' responded.

"Is this real?" she asked, gesturing to the article.

"Looks it, and I can verify there's at least two Moons active. I know," they added at her look. "Two Sailor Moons, at least according to the airport and other reports. My contacts insist it has to be a fake, but we can't ignore that they are active once more, and there's already four of them. Vacation's over, we're going back to Tokyo."

"All right!" she cried, starting to pack with her fatigue suddenly gone. "Time to get our ducks in a bush because this rolling stone can't rest!"


End file.
